McCain earnings trail Obama, Clinton

WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential hopeful John McCain reported earning $405,409 last year and paid $118,660 in taxes, according to tax returns released Friday that did not include many details of his wife's wealth.

The presumptive GOP nominee also reported income of $358,414 in 2006 and $96,933 in taxes paid.

McCain's reported total includes some income earned by his wife, Cindy, heiress to one of the nation's largest beer distributorships. She keeps many of her finances separate from her husband, an Arizona senator.

On his own, McCain earned $361,373 last year and $264,169 in 2006. McCain's earnings over the last two years are far less than what Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama reported.

Most of McCain's individual earnings come from his Senate salary ($161,708) and sales of his five books ($176,508). The 71-year-old senator also reported receiving $23,157 in Social Security benefits last year. McCain, a former pilot held for five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, also collects a non-taxable pension from the Navy, which totaled $58,358 last year.

McCain's tax release is different from the information provided by Clinton and Obama, who file tax returns jointly with their spouses. The McCains file individually and his campaign did not release tax returns for Cindy McCain.

However, some information about Cindy McCain's earnings are included in the senator's tax returns. He reported that his wife earned more than $430,000 in each of the past two years in salary and benefits for her work as chairman of Hensley & Co., the company she inherited from her parents.

Because Arizona has community property laws, married couples living there must report their salaries and income from jointly held assets on each spouse's taxes when the husband and wife file separate tax returns.

McCain's campaign said the senator and his wife, who have a prenuptial agreement about their assets, "have kept their personal finances separate throughout their 27-year marriage" and have filed separate tax returns for several years.