NORTH HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Former wrestling executive and Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon and her husband, Vince, have released their latest tax returns, which show the couple earned $24.1 million in 2011 — a $6 million drop compared to their 2010 earnings.
Tim Murtaugh, McMahon's campaign spokesman, said the Greenwich couple filed their 2011 taxes on Thursday. Copies of the returns were provided to The Associated Press.
The campaign had delayed releasing the 2011 returns because McMahon said the couple was awaiting two missing documents regarding investment income. Murtaugh said that information is still not ready, but McMahon recently learned the taxes could be filed without it.
"In the interest of just moving forward, Linda acted on that advice," he said, adding how McMahon wanted to release the returns before Tuesday's primary.
Murtaugh said McMahon and her husband, the CEO of the WWE, formerly known as World Wrestling Entertainment, plan to file an amended return once the documents become available.
Both Connecticut Democrats and McMahon's Republican primary foe, former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, had made an issue about McMahon's willingness to release her taxes. McMahon had said last month following a debate with Shays that "when it's done, we'll release them." Her campaign then released the couple's 2010 returns shortly afterward.
"This is far more information than any other candidate in the race has released and very likely more than most Senate candidates nationally," Murtaugh said.
The 2011 returns show the McMahons paid about $3.6 million in federal taxes and $1.72 million in state taxes. As in 2010, much of the federal taxes were paid on dividend income, which is taxed at a 15.05 percent rate.
The latest returns also show that the couple made nearly $2.3 million in charitable contributions, with $2 million of that going to the Vince and Linda McMahon Family Foundation.
The foundation, meanwhile, doled out nearly $2.4 million in donations to various groups, including $150,000 to Achievement First, a network of charter schools; $68,335 to the Archdiocese of Hartford for a neighborhood youth center; $330,000 to McMahon's alma mater, East Carolina University; $1 million to Sacred Heart University, where McMahon sits on the board of trustees, and $100,000 to the Connecticut Basketball Club, Inc. in Hartford.
