President Clinton offered a defense of his personal finances in a television interview broadcast on Monday morning, saying that he had “taken almost no capital gains” over the last 15 years.

But tax returns filed by the Clintons from 2000 to 2006, the most recent available, show that they reported $371,000 in capital gains — generally, profits from an investment or property — in those years.

So what gives?

One possibility is that Mr. Clinton’s definition of “almost no capital gains” differs from that of many Americans. Another is that in the intervening eight years, the Clintons have taken far fewer capital gains, or may have even had capital losses.

A spokesman for the Clinton campaign declined to comment on Mr. Clinton’s remarks, which the former president made to the NBC News reporter Cynthia McFadden in Kenya.

The Clinton’s taxes from 2000-6, available through the Center for Public Integrity, show how the Clintons reported modest capital losses or no gains from 2001 to 2003. Gains topped $100,000 in 2000 and 2006. The more recent records have not yet been released by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Source: www.nytimes.com