Joe Biden releases tax return and shows steep fall in income

President Joe Biden speaking during an event to commemorate the 50 millionth COVID-19 shot
AP

Joe Biden has revived the US presidential tradition of publishing his tax return and the release shows a steep fall in his joint income with wife, Jill.

The documents, released by the White House on Monday, show that he and his wife earned a sum of $607,336 (£430,000) last year in federal income tax.

But their income fell from what it was in 2019 when they earned almost $1million - mostly from speeches, book sales and from taking up positions at higher education institutions, the BBC reported.

It also showed that during the November election campaign the couple paid a federal income tax rate of 25.9 per cent, the White House said.

They donated $30,704 (£26,382) to 10 charities in 2020 with the biggest sum going to the Beau Biden Foundation, which is named after his son, who died aged 46 six years ago of brain cancer.

Ahead of the release, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: “I would expect that we will continue to release the president’s tax returns, as should be expected by every president of the United States.”

It comes after Donald Trump refused to release his tax returns during his term as president - making him the first president since the Watergrate era not to do so.

He had claimed he was unable to publish the information because he was being audited by the US government’s tax-collection agency.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris and her husband also released their joint tax return for 2020, which showed the couple had reported a federal adjusted gross income of $1,695,225 (£1,194,319), said the White House.

The couple also paid $621,893 (£438,403) in federal income tax - accounting to a 2020 federal income tax rate of 36.7 per cent.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in