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Mitt Romney made $22.3 million last year, according to his tax returns

(Trent Nelson | Tribune file photo) Mitt Romney gets a pat on the back from Dan Sanchez while canvassing in Murray with Republican House candidate Robert Edgel, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018.

Mitt and Ann Romney earned more than $80 million in gross income from 2015 to 2017, according to three years of jointly filed tax returns released Thursday by the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.

The Romneys’ combined gross income — which includes earnings from family trusts intended to benefit their children and grandchildren — was $22.3 million in 2017, up from $20 million in 2016 but down from $41.5 million in 2015, the returns show.

“Governor Romney is fulfilling a campaign promise he made earlier this year to release his taxes upon completion of his 2017 returns,” said MJ Henshaw, Romney’s spokeswoman.

The Romneys’ tax returns also show $11.1 million in charitable contributions over the three-year period — or roughly 13 percent of the couple’s gross income — $18.1 million in federal taxes and $6.7 million in state income and property taxes.

The taxes and charitable contributions combine to just less than 43 percent of the couple’s gross income between 2015 and 2017, the returns show, and include $1.7 million in contributions made by Romney through his charitable foundation.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and two-time presidential candidate, is currently running for the Senate seat of retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. A spokeswoman for Romney’s Democratic opponent, Jenny Wilson, declined to comment for this story.

Recent polling by The Salt Lake Tribune and Hinckley Institute of Politics shows Romney with a commanding lead in the Senate race. Romney was supported by 59 percent of participants in the survey — including a majority of men, women, all age groups, Republicans and unaffiliated voters — compared with 23 percent for Wilson.