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 Bush's income has soared since he left the Florida governor's
office in 2007, the records showed. His annual income was $260,580
in 2006, his last year as governor. Tracking steadily higher through
the financial crisis and deep recession, Bush's income was nearly
$7.4 million in 2013.
The release of 1,150 documents, dating to the start of his
commercial real estate career in Miami in 1981, appeared to be the
largest such disclosure ever by a presidential candidate.
"This release will show voters how I earned a living over the past
three decades and how much of that living I had to give back to
Uncle Sam. (Spoiler alert: a lot)," said Bush, whose effective tax
rate exceeded 40 percent in 2013.
Bush's move stands in sharp contrast to Clinton, the overwhelming
favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination for the November
2016 election. She has been under pressure for months to release
more details of her finances.
She and husband Bill, the former president, have built vast wealth
through speaking fees. In May, they said they had earned more than
$25 million for delivering 104 speeches since the beginning of 2014.
"He's revealing in this that he's going to be transparent," said
Rick Wilson, a Florida Republican strategist. "It's an invitation to
the Clintons to open the books."
 The former Florida governor also is applying pressure to his rivals
for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, who have divulged
little of their own financial backgrounds.
Asked in a meeting with a small group of reporters in Washington
whether his release was aimed at pressuring his rivals, Bush said:
"They'll figure out what to do."
In the trove of information he made public, Bush included a chart
showing his 33 years of tax records exceeded disclosures by previous
presidential nominees, with 1996 Republican nominee Bob Dole closest
at 30 years of returns.
Releasing so much tax information, said Bush, 62, was intended to
"give people a sense of who I am."
Since leaving the governor’s office in 2007 through 2013, Bush and
his wife, Columba, have reported earnings of around $28.9 million.
His lawyer said Bush would release his 2014 return when it was
complete and its filing date had been extended to October.
Bush comes from a family of means. His father George H.W. Bush and
brother George W. Bush were both elected president.
CONTRAST WITH ROMNEY
The effective tax rate Bush has paid contrasts with 2012 Republican
nominee Mitt Romney, a multi-millionaire who paid effective tax
rates of less than 20 percent in 2010 and 2011 on income derived
largely from capital gains. Romney's wealth was a central issue in
the 2012 campaign.
Bush's effective tax rate of more than 40 percent exceeds most
Americans'. The 2010 average U.S. tax rate was 18.1 percent and for
highest 1 percent of earners 29.4 percent, according to the
Congressional Budget Office.
But Bush also wrote off substantial pre-tax business expenses from
2007 to 2013, reducing the income used in calculating his effective
tax rate.
In each of 2011, 2012 and 2013, Bush wrote off more than $1 million
in business expenses. Over the seven-year period, he deducted
roughly 20 percent of his business income in expenses. Had those
expenses all been considered part of his taxable income, his
effective tax rates would be lower.
Bush has earned most of his money since 2007 through Jeb Bush &
Associates, a consulting firm, and by forming, with three partners,
a company called Britton Hills, which has focused on a few
growth-capital investments.
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He has made an average of $1.1 million each year in giving speeches
since 2007 with fees ranging from $40,000 to $75,000.
"I made less than Chelsea Clinton," Bush quipped, referring to the
reported $65,000 speaking fee of the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea.
In a revelation that Democrats may pounce on, Bush made an average
of $1.3 million per year over two years in working as a consultant
for Lehman Brothers before the former Wall Street investment firm
went bankrupt during the 2008 financial crisis. Later, he was an
adviser for Barclay's.
Bush paid no federal taxes in 1985 and 1986, two years when his
investment losses canceled out his income.
He also made some mistakes in his tax record-keeping: A $6,500 item
listed as income from gambling in 2013 was actually a prize he won
at a holiday party, an aide said.
REAL ESTATE
The tax records released covered nearly his entire business career,
including his involvement in Miami real estate.
Over the years, Bush became a successful investor and a savvy tax
filer. He and his tax preparer were aggressive about capturing
investment losses through the credit crisis and thereafter. For
example, in 2009, the market bottom following the crisis, he claimed
$97,079 in capital losses that have allowed him to reduce his taxes
that year and subsequent years.
Bush’s investments in so-called passive activity, such as real
estate and investment partnerships have grown substantially. In
2008, he declared $590 in income in real estate and partnerships. In
2013, he claimed $679,526 in real estate and partnership income.
For the past several years, Bush has held shares in private funds
founded – and in some cases managed – by relatives. As early as
2001, Bush was earning money from investments in the Winston Capital
Fund, managed by his brother Marvin Bush.
More recently, beginning in 2007, Jeb Bush bought shares in several
funds issued by a Texas-based real estate investment company
co-founded by his son George P. Bush that is now known as
Pennybacker Capital which buys office buildings, retail properties
and apartments that are in disrepair and renovates them to increase
their potential returns through higher rents.
George P. Bush left the company to become Texas land commissioner, a
position to which he was elected in 2014.
(Additional reporting by Emily Flitter in New York and Alex Wilts in
Washington and Howard Schneider; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and
Cynthia Osterman)
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