On Friday, three days ahead of tax day for most Americans, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris released the completed tax returns from their first year in office.
In a notable contrast to former President Donald Trump, Biden has now made 24 years of his tax returns public. Harris has released 18 years of her returns.
Biden, 79, filed jointly with his wife Jill, reporting an adjusted gross income of $610,702. The majority of their money came from their salaries. Jill Biden, a community college professor, earned $67,116 from her work at Northern Virginia Community College in 2021. The first couple also received income from IRA distributions, Social Security benefits, interest, and royalties.
The Bidens’ 37-page return showed they paid $150,439 in federal income tax, $30,765 in Delaware income tax, and $2,721 in Virginia income tax. The first couple also reported contributions of $17,394 to charity in 2021, including $5,000 to the Beau Biden Foundation in honor of the president’s late son.
In 2021, the Bidens’ reported $62,000 in income from two S corporations, which reportedly represent continued royalties from their previous speaking and writing engagements.
The returns were notably similar to their 2020 taxes — the year Biden won the presidency — which showed an adjusted gross income of $607,336. The Bidens’ income has fallen from the 2017-2019 period, when they were out of office and off the campaign trail. During that stretch, thanks in part to book deals and speaking engagements, they reportedly earned over $15 million.
The White House highlighted that the first family paid an effective federal income tax rate of 24.6% last year while the Second Family paid even more, 31.6%.
While Trump has never released his tax returns willingly, copies leaked to The New York Times in 2020 showed he often strove to pay as little as possible. He infamously reportedly only paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency and another $750 his first year in the White House.
The Vice President’s returns
Harris and the Second Gentleman, Douglas Emhoff, released a joint return showing an adjusted gross income in 2021 of $1,655,563.
They paid $523,371 in federal income taxes and $120,517 to California, $2,044 to New York, and $54,441 in District of Columbia income tax. They reported $22,100 in charitable donations.
Unlike the First Family, Harris and Emhoff made the majority of their income from sources other than their salary. Harris made $452,644 in proceeds from her work as a writer in 2021. She has released a range of titles — from memoirs to a children’s book — in recent years.
And in case you were wondering, neither Biden nor Harris sold any crypto in 2021. Both checked no to the question of whether “At any time during 2021, did you receive, sell, exchange, or otherwise dispose of any financial interest in a virtual currency?”
The deadline for most Americans to file their taxes is Monday, April 18. Maine and Massachusetts residents have an extra day and can file on April 19 because of Patriots Day. Typically, the federal tax-filing deadline is April 15, but extra days were added this year because Emancipation Day was observed on April 15 of this year.
Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.
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