Bush, Laura pay 187,768 dollars in taxes on 618,694 dollars income

Washington, Apr 15 (UNI) United States President George W Bush and First Lady Laura Bush paid 187,768 dollars as federal income taxes for last year's income of 618,694 dollars.

The President's income included salary earned as President and investment income from the trusts in which their assets are held.

Today is the last day for filing taxes.

According to a White House statement here today, President Bush and Mrs Bush contributed 75,560 dollars to churches and charitable organizations, including the American Red Cross' Hurricane 2005 Relief, the Salvation Army's Hurricane Relief, Pakistan Earthquake Relief, Martha's Table, the Archdiocese of New Orleans Catholic Charities, the Mississippi Food Network and the Federal Government's Combined Federal Campaign which are tax-deductible.

Meanwhile, Vice-President Richard Cheney and Mrs Cheney also released their last year's federal income tax returns today, which showed the Cheneys owe 529,636 dollar as tax on income of 1,961,157 dollar.

The Cheneys' adjusted gross income last year was 8,819,006 dollar which was largely the result of the exercise by an independent gift administrator of stock options that had been irrevocably set aside in 2001 for charity, according to a White House statement here.

They donated 6,869,655 dollar to charity from the exercise of these stock options under the terms of the Gift Administration Agreement and from Mrs Cheney's royalties from Simon and Schuster on her books ''America: A Patriotic Primer'', ''A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Woman'' and ''When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots''.

As provided in the Gift Administration Agreement, gifts were made to three designated charities named in that Agreement. The Cheneys' return was filed on March 20.

In a press release of March 5, the Cheneys reported that they had established the Gift Administration Agreement on January 18, 2001 to donate all net after tax proceeds from various stock options that the Vice-President had earned at Halliburton and for their service on the boards of directors of other companies to three designated charities -- George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates Inc. for the benefit of the Cardiothoracic Institute, the University of Wyoming for the benefit of the University of Wyoming Foundation and Capital Partners for Education for the benefit of low-income high school students in the Washington DC area.

By entering into the Gift Administration Agreement, the Cheneys divested themselves of the economic benefit of the options and granted the gift administrator full discretion, power and control over the options.

The Agreement directed the gift administrator to maximize the gifts to the three charities while avoiding financial or after tax benefit or detriment to the Cheneys.

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