Bush pays 187,768 dollars in taxes on 618,694 dollars in income

WASHINGTON, Apr 14 (Reuters) President George W Bush and his wife, Laura, paid 187,768 dollars in federal income taxes for the 2005 on total income of 618,694, dollars the White House said on Friday.

Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, reported taxable income for 2005 that was more than three times that of the Bushes, 1,961,157 dollars, on which they owe 529,636 dollars in federal taxes.

The Cheneys' adjusted gross income in 2005 was 8,819,006 dollars, which his office said 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.

The Cheneys had donated 6,869,655 dollars to charity in 2005 from the exercise of these stock options under the terms of their gift agreement and from Mrs Cheney's royalties from three historical books for young people.

Bush's 2005 income went down from the 784,219 dollars in income from the 2004 tax year. His income included his 400,000 dollars salary earned as president and investment income from the trusts in which their assets are held.

The White House said 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 fund and Pakistan earthquake relief, among other organizations.

During the course of 2005 the Cheneys paid 2,468,566 dollars in taxes through withholding and estimated tax payments.

The wage and salary income reported on Cheney's tax return included his 205,031 dollars government salary as well as 211,465 dollars in deferred pay from Halliburton, the Texas energy company Cheney once headed, which has received billion-dollar government contracts in Iraq.

The deferred pay agreement dates back to December 1998 when Cheney decided to defer compensation earned in 1999 over five years for his services as chief executive officer of Halliburton. He had received 194,852 dollars through this deal in 2004.

''The amount of deferred compensation received by the vice president is fixed and is not affected in any way by Halliburton's current economic performance or earnings,'' the vice president's office said. ''This 2005 payment closes out the payments under the deferred compensation plan.'' The tax return also reported Mrs. Cheney's royalty income from her book ''A Time for Freedom: What Happened When in America,'' salary income from the American Enterprise Institute, and a director's retirement benefit from Reader's Digest, on whose board of directors she served until 2003.

REUTERS CH BD0018