WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s wife, Cindy, reported $4.2 million in income for 2007, nearly $2 million less than she reported the previous year, according to tax returns released by the McCain campaign Friday.
Cindy McCain, who files her taxes separately from her husband, paid $1.1 million in taxes, a tax rate of about 26 percent. She took nearly $530,000 in itemized deductions.
The McCain campaign said her losses were in investment income directly related to her family business, Hensley & Co., an Arizona beer distributorship of which she is chairwoman.
“The reduction is a combination of capital investments in the business and, like many companies, Hensley has felt the impact of a weakened economy,” said McCain spokesman Brian Jones.
The Arizona senator’s campaign had released her 2006 return in May but said Cindy McCain had requested an extension on her 2007 return.
McCain himself released his own tax return in April, reporting a total income of $405,409 in 2007 and $84,460 in federal income taxes.
Democratic rival Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, made their returns public earlier this year, reporting $4.2 million in 2007 income, most of it profits from his books, “Dreams From My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope.”
As an heiress to the Hensley fortune, Cindy McCain’s worth has been estimated at more than $100 million.
