GOP candidate for governor Ashley Kalus releases some of her tax returns. What do they say?

PROVIDENCE – Ashley Kalus, the GOP candidate for governor, provided a peek on Wednesday into one corner of the multi-state personal and financial life she shares with her physician husband, Dr. Jeffrey Weinzweig, in Florida, Illinois and Rhode Island.

Kalus, who filed her taxes under her married name, Ashley Weinzweig, voluntarily released the top two pages of her 2021 state and federal tax returns, including the "resident" tax return she filed with the State of Rhode Island.

But unlike most other candidates for top office in Rhode Island, including Gov. Dan McKee and his wife, Susan, she made public only her tax returns, not joint returns.

What do Kalus' tax returns show?

They show Kalus paying $192,012 in federal taxes (including $39,294 in self-employment taxes) and $40,128 in state taxes to Rhode Island – including $503 in sales and use taxes – on $703,729 in "RI taxable income."

While it appears she overpaid her R.I. taxes and was entitled to a rebate, her rebate was reduced by $3,795 in "underestimating interest due."

It was not immediately clear if some, or all, of that income in Tax Year 2021 came from the COVID testing and vaccination contract she managed for Doctors Test Centers, a company created by her husband, that brought her to Rhode Island in spring 2021.

The company advertised services in Chicago, Key West and Rhode Island.

In a filing with the Rhode Island Ethics Commission, Kalus described herself as the Key West-based "manager" and her husband as the "director/surgeon" of the Chicago branch of the testing company in 2021.

In her ethics filing, she also listed her husband as the principal in most of the other business that provided income for their family, including JW Plastic Surgery, JW Holdings and the Novaplast Corporation, along with three pages of financial investments in his name.

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'I'm running for governor, not my husband'

When asked Wednesday, after an unrelated news conference, why she was only making public returns reflecting her income, she told The Journal:

"As you know, as my husband was ramping down [his practice] in Illinois, we were separate and he was coming back and forth for the kids for a while. So that was what made sense. We made a decision, or it was made for us with our accountants."

Asked if she had filed "married filing separately" returns in the past, she said she wasn't sure. "It's not the first time that we have been apart because of work. But ... I think it's the longest we've had to live apart, which has been difficult."

"I anticipate that he's not going anywhere and we are not going to do that anymore," she said, adding "there's a point in a life and in a marriage, where that is no longer something you want to do ... I don't want to do that anymore with my husband."

Asked whether she intended to make her husband's tax filing public as well, she said: "I'm running for governor, not my husband. And I am doing what I said I was going to do."

Wasn't Doctors Test Centers a result of her business partnership with her husband?

Her answer: "While I would say that any marriage is a partnership, the reality is that this is my career, and as a woman, I have my own career, and I am doing what we promised we were going to do."

Why did Kalus file under married name?

Asked why she filed her taxes under her married name – Weinzweig – her campaign spokesman Matt Hanrahan said: "In Rhode Island, there is no legal mechanism for a woman to distinguish between her professional name and her married name.

"Weinzweig was used for tax filing purposes because it was her legal name. However, throughout her entire career, Ashley has gone professionally by ‘Kalus’ – of which there are many publicly available examples.

"However, in Rhode Island, only a legal/married last name can appear on the ballot. Therefore, Ashley legally changed her last name to reflect her professional name by which she has always gone by."

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In response to McKee's call for her to match his own release of four years' worth of tax returns, she said:

"Where is the subpoena? Where are the RICAS scores?" she said: "It's funny that we have a governor [who] professes to care about transparency and accountability when he won't release things that really cut to the heart of good government."

She was referring to the planned post-election release of RICAS student test results and McKee's refusal to say whether his administration has been subpoenaed in connection with the "ILO" education consulting contract.

It remains unclear where Kalus and husband – who, like her, was also registered to vote in Florida in 2021, while getting a "homestead exemption" reserved for residents on their homes in Illinois – filed "resident" tax returns.

Florida has no income tax.

McKee's camp responds

Late Wednesday, the McKee campaign issued this response to Kalus' tax disclosures:

"The extremely limited, partial release of Ashley Kalus’ tax returns raises more questions than answers for voters."

Among those raised by McKee campaign manager Brexton Isaacs: "Why she's refusing to release a more transparent view of her tax returns, why she's only releasing a single year, and why she's not why she's not disclosing information from her spouse's returns, as Gov. McKee has done.

"Since Ms. Kalus has chosen to predominately self-fund her campaign with millions of dollars, voters deserve to know where that money came from, as she’s using it in an attempt to buy a governor's office in a state she just moved to," he said.

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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI Candidate Ashley Kalus tax returns hint at income, residency