WASHINGTON, April 15— It is a rite of spring in Washington for the White House to disclose the First Family's tax returns on this day, and typically the occasion is noted with little fanfare.

But because of the daily barrage of questions in recent weeks about the Clintons' finances, the White House decided today to try to avert any new controversies before they arose.

Sitting around the table in the Roosevelt Room, the President's top lawyers and aides reviewed Mr. and Mrs. Clinton's tax return line by line with reporters. Present for the briefing were two lawyers from the White House counsel's office (including the chief counsel, Lloyd N. Cutler); two lawyers from Williams & Connolly (the firm that represents the Clintons personally); the communications director, Mark D. Gearan, and the staff secretary, John Podesta.

The surprises yielded by the tax return were more trivial than scandalous. They showed, for example, that the Clintons paid $62,670 in Federal income taxes on an adjusted gross income of $293,757. The Clintons decided to apply a refund of $7,982 to their 1994 taxes. Television Income

Most of the income was the President's salary ($200,000 annually, but last year only $189,167 because he started on Jan. 20). From their blind trust, the Clintons received gains, interest and dividends of $42,284. Other income included $2,473 for appearances by the President and Mrs. Clinton on the Arsenio Hall Show.

The largest deduction on their tax return was $38,683 for moving expenses that the White House said was paid to United Van Lines.

In previous returns, when Mr. Clinton was the Governor of Arkansas and his wife was a partner in a Little Rock law firm, the Clintons had gone so far as to deduct $2 for underwear donated to charities. The deduction was ridiculed by comedians and pundits, and the White House did not itemize the Clintons' $17,000 in charitable contributions on the 1993 return.

A $66 deduction for the personal property tax paid on the Clintons' 1986 Oldsmobile prompted penetrating questions, like where was the car kept (somewhere in Arkansas) and who was driving it (the senior aides said they did not know).

Mr. Gearan also said that the return included $12,000 in income from a privately established fund for First Ladies, which was created around the turn of the century by Henry G. Freeman Jr., whose occupation and story the White House did not know. The fund was supposed to begin making payments to the First Lady in 1989, after Mr. Freeman's last known heir died, but litigation over the estate delayed the payouts until last year. Mr. Gearan said Mrs. Clinton would donate the money to charity.