CLINTONS RELEASE TAX RETURN SHOWING THEY PAID $75,437.

Byline: Associated Press 

A booming stock market and an old late-night TV appearance helped boost income of the president and first lady by more than $50,000 last year. They paid federal tax of $75,437 on income of $316,074.

Included in the president's earnings was $2,423 in royalties from a 1988 appearance on the old ``Tonight'' show with Johnny Carson on NBC-TV. The money was earned from sales of a videotape anthology of Carson's best shows, said White House press secretary Mike McCurry.

``Everybody needs tax relief, including Bill and Hillary Clinton,'' McCurry told reporters. He said he had asked Clinton if he paid his fair share and was told, ``Sure looks like it.''

The Clintons paid 23.8 percent of their gross income in federal income tax, about average for couples at their income level.

``The amount President and Mrs. Clinton paid is pretty close to the average,'' McCurry told reporters.

The couple deducted $30,310 in cash contributions to charities. The contributions included $12,000 that went directly to charity when the first lady declined to keep that amount from the Henry G. Freeman Jr. Pin Money Fund, established in 1912 to benefit presidential spouses.

Among beneficiaries of the Clintons' charity were their alma maters and the three churches they attend.

In 1994, the Clintons reported income of $263,900 and paid tax of $55,313.

The biggest difference between the two years, McCurry noted, was in capital gains. In 1994, the Clintons earned $38,000 on profits from the sale of investments held in a blind trust. Those gains totaled $88,441 last year.

``Obviously we have no way of knowing what generated that income,'' McCurry said, ``but obviously it was a year in which the stock market did pretty well.''

Vice President Gore and his wife, Tipper, also released copies of their tax return, showing $235,974 income and federal tax of $71,493. Gore reported $41,302 net royalties from his best-selling book, ``Earth in the Balance.''