Biden just one-upped Trump again by releasing his taxes

President Joe Biden has released his recent tax return for the public to pursue and it’s a lot less salacious than his political opponents would claim. Biden and his wife did earn a lot of money in 2023 but it wasn’t outrageous. 

The Bidens filed a joint tax return for 2023 and the White House released that return on April 15th. The President and First Lady earned $619,976 for the year, which is a figure that seems about right for a presidential couple. 

Compensation for being the leader of the free world earns the person in the Oval Office $400,000 a year. This amount was set by Congress in 2001 following thirty years of the country’s presidents earning $200,000 dollars. 

“The bulk of the Bidens’ income came from President Biden’s congressionally mandated $400,000 salary, along with pensions. The first lady also earned $85,985 from her position as a teacher at Northern Virginia Community College,” CNN reported. 

Reuters reported that additional income for the Bidens was drawn from interest on their investments as well as their pensions and “a corporate entity that collects the couple's book royalties.”

“Most of the increase of income relative to 2022 was from interest paid on one of the couple's bank accounts,” Reuters added. “The proportion of Joe Biden's income that went to federal taxes was roughly equal to the prior year.”

The President and the First Lady paid $146,629 in federal income taxes which put their effective federal tax rate at 23.7 percent according to a White House statement that the Biden administration released with his return. 

Biden and his wife also released their Delaware income taxes and paid $30,908 to the state. Jill Biden released her income Virginia tax return as well. She reported paying a rather small payment of $3,549 to the state. 

The release of Biden’s tax return wasn’t an altruistic move and his team may have had an eye for taking a dig at Donald Trump since he has declined to voluntarily release his tax returns according to CNN’s Michelle Williams.

Williams’ point does make a lot of sense since the focus of the White House statement regarding Biden’s tax returns was on the “new record of transparency” that the president set when he released his 2023 tax returns to the public. 

“President Biden has now shared a total of 26 years of tax returns with the country. Once again demonstrating his commitment to being transparent with the American people,” the statement read, adding that it was the most returns of any president. 

“President Biden believes that all occupants of the Oval Office should be open and honest with the American people, and that the longstanding tradition of annually releasing presidential tax returns should continue unbroken,” the statement added.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff also released their federal and state tax returns. Together the couple earned a gross income of $450,299 in 2023 and paid a total of $88,570 in federal income tax or a tax rate of 19.7 percent. 

The Vice President and Second Gentlemen also paid $15,167 in taxes to California and Emeroff paid $11,599 in taxes to the District of Columbia. Harris has published a total of 20 years of her tax returns, keeping in step with Biden’s commitment to transparency. 

Biden and his wife donated a total of $20,477 to 17 different charities, including a $5000 dollar donation to the Beau Biden Foundation as well as donations to St. Joseph’s Hospital on the Brandywine, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, and the National Fraternal Order of Police Foundation.

Harris and Emeroff contributed $23,026 to charity in 2023. However, the major donations and number of charities that were donated to was not listed in the White House statement.