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Presidential Tax Returns
Individual income tax returns — including those of public figures — are private information, protected by law from unauthorized disclosure. Indeed, the Internal Revenue Service is barred from releasing any taxpayer information whatsoever, except to authorized agencies and individuals.
Like all other citizens, U.S. presidents enjoy this protection of their privacy. Since the early 1970s, however, most presidents have chosen to release their returns publicly. In the hope of making this information more widely available, the Tax History Project at Tax Analysts has compiled an archive of presidential tax returns.
Note: To view these files, you'll need a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Presidential Candidates
During the 2004 presidential election, the Tax History Project published tax returns released by the Democratic candidate, Sen. John Kerry, as well as those released by his opponent, President George Bush. This year, we will again publish tax returns released by both Democratic and Republican candidates.
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Senator John S. McCain
2006 | 2007
Note: Large PDFs (7 MB).
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Note: For tax year 2001, both President Bush and Vice President Cheney released partial returns. For tax year 2000, Bush released only his Form 1040; Cheney provided a summary of his taxes, but released no forms.
Important Notes: Paper copies of the returns can be ordered from Tax Analysts using the associated document numbers. Copies are also available from the Bush, Carter, Nixon, Reagan, and Roosevelt presidential libraries.
Two caveats: (1) Some of the images are of mediocre quality, reflecting the poor photocopies released by the White House. We're searching for better copies and will make them available as soon as possible; (2) most of the missing years reflect a quirk of the calendar. Presidents release tax returns only for years they serve in office and only while they still hold that office. Consequently, Jimmy Carter did not release a return for 1980 nor did Ronald Reagan release one for 1988 — each left office before returns were due. Likewise incoming presidents do not release returns for the year before they assumed office, even though they hold office when returns for that year come due.
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