20000416

Clintons' investment

income nearly

triples since 1997

WASHINGTON: Investment income earned by President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has nearly tripled since 1997, but their overall income is down largely due to a drop in royalties from Mrs Clinton, book, according to tax return released on Friday.

The Clintons reported adjusted gross income of dollars 416,039 for 1999, down about dollars 88,000 from the year before. That still placed them in the top 2 percent income bracket, a group that pays 40 percent of all US income taxes.

The first couple paid dollars 92,104 in income taxes and could have claimed a refund of dollars 2,278, but they decided instead to apply that to next year's tax bill. The average taxes paid by all taxpayers in their income group was just over dollars 71,000 in 1997, the most recent year complete IRS statistics are available.

Their earnings included Clinton's salary as president of dollars 200,000, which is set by law, and dollars 185,857 in capital gains, dividend and interest income mainly from their blind trust managed by Pell Rudman Trust Co.

The capital gains income of dollars 179,849 last year compares with dollars 65,028 in 1997, mirroring the gains earned by millions of other investors during the stock market's boom. The Clintons' blind trust did a little better in 1998, earning dollars 200,318.

Royalties from Mrs. Clinton's 1996 book, "It Takes A Village," amounted to dollars 20,214 last year, down from almost dollars 282,000 in 1997 and dollars 74,289 in 1998. A White House statement said the book's earnings were donated to "charities across the country that support children and their families".

Also given to charity was dollars 12,000 from the Henry G Freeman JR Pin Money Fund, established in Freeman's 1912 will as income for whoever is the spouse of the president. All told, the Clinton's made dollars 39,200 in charitable contributions.

Like about a third of all Americans, the Clintons claimed itemized deductions, a total of dollars 81,358.

As new owners of a home in Chappaqua, New York Ñ Mrs. Clinton's base for her New York run for the Senate Ñ the Clintons claimed dollars 31,931 in deductions for state and local income taxes and for real estate taxes. They also claimed a home mortgage deduction of dollars 10,714.

Like about half of all taxpayers, the Clintons used a professional prepare to do their taxes, a certified public accountant in Rockville, Maryland, who charged them dollars 5,625 in 1998 for the service.ÑAP