For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
April 13, 2004

Vice President Dick Cheney and Mrs. Cheney Release 2003 Income Tax Return

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Terrence O'Donnell or James T. Fuller
Williams & Connolly LLP
(202) 434-5000

Vice President and Mrs. Cheney filed their federal income tax return for 2003 today.

The income tax return shows that the Cheneys owe federal taxes for 2003 of $253,067 on taxable income of $813,226. During the course of 2003 the Cheneys paid $258,779 in taxes through withholding and estimated tax payments. The Cheneys elected to apply the resulting $5,712 tax overpayment to their 2004 estimated tax payments.

The wage and salary income reported on the tax return includes the Vice President's $198,600 government salary. In addition, the tax return reports the payment of deferred compensation from Halliburton Company, in the amount of $178,437. In December 1998, the Vice President elected to defer compensation earned in calendar year 1999 for his services as chief executive officer of Halliburton. This amount is to be paid in fixed annual installments (with interest) in the five years after the Vice President's retirement from Halliburton. That election to defer income became final and unalterable before Mr. Cheney left Halliburton. The amount of deferred compensation received by the Vice President is fixed and is not affected by Halliburton's current economic performance or earnings in any way. In addition, the Vice President purchased, with his personal funds, an insurance policy that guarantees that he will receive the amount that is owed to him even if Halliburton is unable to make the deferred compensation payments.

The tax return also reports Mrs. Cheney's wage and salary income from her continuing work at the American Enterprise Institute and compensation from Reader's Digest, on whose board of directors she served in 2003. The Cheneys donated $321,141 to charity in 2003, primarily from donations of Mrs. Cheney's royalties from Simon & Schuster on her books America: A Patriotic Primer and A is for Abigail, as well as her forthcoming book titled Fifty States.

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