Senator McCain Tax Returns, $340,320 to Charity

 Senator John McCain released his income tax returns for the past two years showing that he received over $740,000 during 2006 and 2007 from his Senate salary, book royalty payments, his military pension and Social Security.

But yesterday’s release did not shed new light on the extent of the presumptive Republican presidential candidate’s wealth which comes from his wife, Cindy McCain.

Mrs. McCain holds a significant stake in a Phoenix-based beer distributorship, Hensley & Co. that her late father helped found. To date, she has not disclosed the size of her stake in the privately-held concern. But published estimates have speculated that it could be worth up to $100 million or more.

Hensley or entities controlled by it also have sizable real estate holdings, primarily in Arizona, public filings show.

In a statement accompanying the release of Senator McCain’s taxes, his campaign stated that it was not releasing Mrs. McCain’s personal taxes “in the interest of protecting the privacy of her children”.

According to filings, Mrs. McCain received an annual salary of over $430,000 for serving as chairwoman of the company, which one of the country’s biggest distributors of Anheuser-Busch products. Under a prenuptial agreement, Cindy McCain’s assets are kept separate from her husband’s.

According to Senator McCain’s tax filing, he paid a total $157,231 in taxes on taxable income during the two-year period, a tax rate of about 33 percent, according to his campaign.

Over the past two years, Senator and Mrs. McCain donated about $340,320 from their community assets to charity, the campaign said.

Most of Senator McCain’s contributions were made to the John and Cindy McCain Family Foundation. It contributes to a number of groups including Operation Smile, an organization that provide reconstructive facial surgery to poor children and others, and The Halo Trust, an organization involved in mine-clearing.