First Lady Said to Have Kept $100,000 in Income from Book

WASHINGTON —  The White House last month said all income from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s book, “It Takes a Village,” was going to charity except for what it called “minor administrative expenses.”

But tax expert Lee A. Shepherd, a contributing editor of the weekly journal Tax Notes, writes in this week’s issue that it’s not at all clear that’s what happened.

Based on an analysis of the Clintons’ tax returns that Shepherd did with San Antonio tax expert Steven Bankler, a former Senate Whitewater “investigative accountant,” Shepherd writes that “Mrs. Clinton appears to have kept, or has yet to pay over to charities” more than $100,000 of income plus about $12,000 in interest.

It was all duly reported, but Shepherd questions why $100,000 didn’t go to charity.

“Even by Washington standards,” Shepherd wrote, “$100,000 plus does not constitute ‘minor administrative expense’ and even if it did, it should have been deducted on Schedule C.”

And if Mrs. Clinton had planned it better, Shepherd said, it appears she could have paid less in taxes and given more to charity.

“The Clintons don’t seem to be able to do anything right,” responded a source familiar with the Clintons’ tax return. “It’s ironic,” he said. Now they are criticized because “they paid too much” in taxes. Various options were considered, he said, and the Clintons “picked the least-complex method” for handling the book royalties.

Shepherd’s calculations were wrong, the source said. “The bulk” of $100,000 “went to taxes,” he said.