According to several veterans of the Kerry campaign, that’s because the senator made it standard practice to release five or six years worth of tax returns during each of his Senate campaigns, meaning that when he launched his 2004 presidential bid, 18 years of tax returns had already been made public. (He then released an additional two years’ worth during the campaign.) Those returns were sent to local Massachusetts reporters covering his Senate races, rather than the national press corps. A newspaper archive search confirmed their disclosure.
- On April 19, 1997, the Boston Globe reported that Kerry had paid nearly $40,000 in federal and state income taxes on an income of $143,795 “according to income tax returns he released yesterday.” Most of the senator’s reported income came from his $126,920 salary.
- One year earlier, the Globe reported that, “Kerry’s six-year total income is $724,042; according to his federal tax returns, he earmarked just under seven-10ths of 1 percent for charitable contributions.”
- On October 29, 1990, the Globe reported that Kerry was badgering his Republican opponent — real estate developer Jim Rappaport — “by demanding that Rappaport release five years of federal and state tax returns, as Kerry has done.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/18/mitt-romney-john-kerry-tax-returns_n_1435604.html