DeWines’ tax returns show high non-wage income

Despite annual adjusted gross income of more than $600,000 in recent years, Mike and Fran DeWine paid federal taxes at an effective rate comparable to that of average Ohioans.

Ohio’s attorney general and a Republican candidate for governor, along with his wife, released their federal income-tax returns for the past three years Wednesday ahead of the May 8 primary.

The large majority of the DeWines’ income came from hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest and dividends accompanying the attorney general’s family-held Greene County agricultural interests and trusts established by his parents. Only about $100,000 a year came from his salary as attorney general.

The DeWines’ adjusted gross income ranged from a high of $758,794 in 2016 to a low of $634,975 in 2017, according to their tax forms.

They paid federal income taxes of $113,801 last year (an effective rate of 17.9 percent), $121,527 (16.0 percent) in 2016, and $125,642 (19.5 percent) in 2015.

The average adjusted gross income in Ohio is $60,710 a year, with an average tax paid on that amount totaling $10,561, or 17.4 percent, according to federal figures.

The DeWines routinely overpaid their federal income taxes each year, claiming credits of up to $56,560 that they applied toward the following year’s taxes.

They personally contributed an average of $48,923 a year to charity over the past three years. The nonprofit DeWine Family Foundation, with assets of $13.7 million, distributed $739,679 last year, including $400,000 to fund schools in Haiti, where one complex is named for the DeWine DeWines’ daughter Becky, who was killed in a 1993 car crash.

The DeWine campaign refused to release copies of the tax forms; it allowed reporters only to review them and take notes.

DeWine’s running mate, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, and his wife, Tina, also released their federal income tax returns from the past three years. Their income consisted largely of his taxable salary of around $84,000 a year and amounts ranging from $88,604 to $41,022 a year from Tina Husted’s selfemployment as a real estate agent and an artist specializing in landscapes.

Both DeWine and Husted are paid $109,961 a year, but the wage amounts listed on their tax forms exclude deferred compensation.

The Husteds’ annual adjusted gross income last year was the highest of the three years at $154,036, an increase from $124,491 in 2016.

The couple paid $27,398 in federal income taxes last year (an effective rate of 17.8 percent), $14,450 (11.7 percent) in 2016, and $23,316 (16.4 percent) in 2015.

Their charitable contributions averaged $9,592 a year.

DeWine’s opponent in the gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, is expected to make her tax returns public on Thursday. No other gubernatorial candidates have released their tax forms yet.

The Dispatch asked DeWine, Husted and Taylor in December if they would make their complete returns for the past three years public. All three said yes.

Republican Gov. John Kasich, during his first campaign in 2010, provided reporters only with a limited, notes-only review of only his 2009 tax form. While running for president in 2016, Kasich released his returns from 2008 to 2014.