Cruz and Rubio release tax returns and demand Trump do the same

Reporting from Washington  —  Sen. Ted Cruz released four years of tax figures Saturday as a gesture of “transparency and accountability,” joining rival Marco Rubio in challenging Donald Trump to do the same as the three battle for the Republican presidential nomination ahead of Super Tuesday’s crucial contests next week.

But the Saturday night disclosure by Cruz, a Texas Republican -- like one earlier in the day by Rubio, his Senate colleague from Florida -- offered only a partial glimpse of his personal finances. They showed that he consistently paid more than 28% of his and his wife’s income in taxes but failed to specify all sources of income or the nature of deductions the couple sought.

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The Cruzes paid $389,124 on an adjusted growth income of more than $1.2 million in 2014, for an effective tax rate of 32.2%, the campaign said in a summary of the documents released.

It was the highest effective tax rate they paid in the years provided, based on $983,161 in salaries, $190,000 in unspecified business income and $37,000 in dividends and capital gains.

In 2011 and 2012, most of the Cruzes’ income came from real estate, royalties or other sources, the returns showed.

Cruz’s wife, Heidi, worked at Goldman Sachs until she took an unpaid leave of absence last year to devote herself to her husband’s White House bid. Cruz was elected to the Senate in 2012.

In a statement, the Cruz campaign noted that the senator had also released five years of tax returns during his Senate campaign. It said Trump should “follow Sen. Cruz’s example” and release at least nine years of his own returns.

“It’s time for Trump to come clean and release his tax returns,” Cruz said in the statement. “If he’s not been completely honest or has supported the most radical left-wing groups in America, voters deserve to know.”

Trump has said several of his returns are being audited and he won’t release them until that process is complete.

Rubio posted five years of tax data to his website, which showed a range of income from $183,826 in 2010, the year he was elected to the Senate, to $929,439 in 2012, the year his memoir, “An American Son,” was released.

That was the year Rubio saw his highest effective tax rate: 27.4%. He paid $64,666 in taxes on an adjusted gross income of $335,561 in 2014, the data showed.

Follow @mikememoli for more 2016 campaign news.

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