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AUSTIN — In each of the past two years, Gov. Greg Abbott and first lady Cecilia Abbott have paid about $12,000 or $13,000 a year of federal income tax, according to returns his office released late Wednesday.
Abbott is believed to still receive considerably more from the lawsuit settlement over the 1984 jogging accident that left him in a wheelchair than he does from his state salary.
But the payments from that aren’t taxable and don’t show up on his returns.
For 2017, the Abbotts paid $13,195 of tax on adjusted gross income of $118,107 after taking $24,850 of exemptions and itemized deductions. Last year, they paid $11,732 of tax on adjusted gross income of $123,506 after taking standard deductions worth $24,000.
Currently, the Republican governor’s state salary is $153,750 a year.
For 2017, the Abbotts reported wages, salaries and tips of $116,559; for last year, the amount was $122,287.
While Cecilia Abbott used to work as community relations executive for an Austin-based home health care company, she gave up that work shortly before her husband first ran for governor in 2014.
Greg Abbott may have reduced his taxable wages with pretax retirement and health plan contributions that shrink what’s taxable.
His office was not immediately able to say what causes the first couple’s reported income to be less than his official salary.
On their returns, the Abbotts listed their daughter, Audrey, a full-time student at the University of Southern California, as their only dependent.
Throughout more than two decades in public life, Greg Abbott’s income has been augmented from a 1986 personal injury lawsuit settlement.
Abbott sued the homeowner and a tree company after a large oak fell on him while he was jogging in Houston. The accident left him partially paralyzed. He won a settlement that could be worth $9 million over his lifetime.
On Wednesday, the Abbotts did not release any schedules associated with their returns. As a result, it was not clear how in 2017, they amassed $12,700 in itemized deductions – for things such as charitable contributions and state and local taxes paid.
Last year, the Abbotts did not itemize. They each took a standard deduction of $12,000.
In 2017, they reported $4,318 of income from interest and dividends. In 2018, the figure was $4,443. In both years, they reported a $3,000 capital loss. But they did not release the schedule that would have offered more details.
“In keeping with his pledge to release tax returns each year he serves as governor, Greg Abbott today released his tax returns for 2017 and 2018,” his office said.
As a candidate for governor in 2013, Abbott released to the Associated Press returns covering most of his final four-year term as state attorney general. As he successfully ran for a second term as governor last year, he released 19 pages of his 2016 federal returns.
With Wednesday’s action, he’s made public at least portions of federal income tax returns for 2010-18.