President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, paid $92,460 in federal income taxes on a total income of $336,640 last year, according to their tax return, which was released Tuesday.
The Reagans had $69,517 withheld last year and had applied $54,000 from their 1985 tax refund toward their 1986 taxes, so they will receive a $31,057 refund.
The Reagans’ joint 1986 tax return was made public by the White House, disclosing that their blind trust produced more than $53,000 in interest income and that their overall income was $336,640–a $60,000 decrease from 1985.
The return was signed by the Reagans at their ranch 30 miles northwest of here in the Santa Ynez mountains, where they are spending a weeklong Easter holiday. It was mailed to the Internal Revenue Service center in Fresno, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.
Although the President’s personal holdings are kept in a blind trust, the document still provides a glimpse at his financial status.
The Reagans boosted their income from the $200,000 he is paid annually as President with $84,759 in interest payments, including $53,063 from the trust and $29,914 from a personal note they hold on the home they sold in Pacific Palisades when they moved to the White House in 1981. A checking account produced $880, and a life insurance policy produced an additional $902 in interest.
Mrs. Reagan earned $1,506 in union-scale wages for appearances on “Diff’rent Strokes,” “One to Grow On” and “The Late Show,” Fitzwater said. The shows carried the anti-drug abuse message she has made a central theme of her years in the White House.
Dividends and the President’s $29,118 pension from his eight years as governor of California brought the total income to $336,640.
The President and his wife lowered their adjusted gross income with $108,338 in itemized deductions, including $27,088 in state income, real estate and sales taxes, and charitable contributions of $30,487, including an $11,500 gift to Eureka College in Illinois, the President’s alma mater.
Of the $31,057 refund the Reagans claimed, $15,000 was to be applied to their tax payments for 1987. They asked to receive the rest–$16,057–as a refund.
In what has become a continuing dispute over Mrs. Reagan’s age, the tax return shows that only the 76-year-old President claimed the exemption for those 65 and over. Mrs. Reagan’s press office says she was born on July 6, 1923, in which case she would have turned 63 last July. But other accounts place her year of birth as 1921, making her 65 years old.
Meanwhile, the White House issued a written statement from Reagan praising the tax law revisions that take effect this year, saying that “this is the last gasp of the old tax code.”
“This April 15th is the last time Americans will pay the higher, complicated rates of the old system,” he said. “Starting this year, tax reform takes over.”