As he left an event earlier this week, Jack Ciattarelli, answering an issue raised by Mikie Sherrill, said he was going to release his tax returns - no question about it.

And on Friday, he did that - and then some.

Ciattarelli invited the press to an office in Clinton where they were given access to the candidate's 2024 tax return and a summary of his tax history back to 2012. That summary listed by year, his total income and broke down the tax he paid in three categories - federal income tax, state income tax and property taxes.

In addition to his stint in the state Legislature, Ciattarelli owned Galen Publishing, L.L.C., a medical publishing company in Somerville. He also worked as an accountant and was briefly an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University.

The summary showed that Ciattarelli earned the most amount of money in 2017 when he made about $7 million, on which he paid about $2 million in taxes. That was the year in which he sold his business.

He also reported an income of $1.3 million in 2016 and paid an estimated 534,000 in taxes.

More recently, Ciattarelli reported more modest income - $168,000 in 2022 and $343,000 in 2024.

In all, the Republican candidate said he paid an average effective tax rate of 28 percent a year while working full-time with a high of 38 percent in 2016. He calculated that since 2012, he has paid nearly $4 million in total taxes.

Since officially retiring, the Ciattarelli campaign says he has invested a significant amount of savings in tax-free  New Jersey municipal bonds. He also says he has turned down business opportunities, choosing instead to run for governor. Or, as his release puts it, to fix "the state that he loves."

Ciattarelli also called on Mikie Sherrill to release her tax returns dating back to 2018, which was the year she was elected to Congress.

"Her recent stunt to release just two years of tax returns and never talk about it again speaks volumes," he said.

Sherrill released two years of tax returns in May.

They revealed a 2024 income for her and her husband of about $3.2 million. Most of this was from husband, Jason Hedberg, who works for UBS Securities. Sherrill's congressional salary is $174,000 a year.

In that year, they paid about $1.08 million in federal income taxes and about $279,000 in New York state taxes, where Hedberg works.