Biden and Harris release their tax returns
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden earned a total of $579,514 and paid $169,820 in total federal and state taxes for an effective federal tax rate of 23.8% in 2022, according to copies of their returns obtained on Tax Day.
That's slightly less than the Bidens earned in 2021, when they reported a total of $610,702 in income. In 2022, the first couple donated $20,180 to 20 charities, with the largest gift of $5,000 going to the Beau Biden Foundation, a foundation named after the president's late son. Other charities they donated to include St. Joseph on the Brandywine, where the president attends church in Wilmington, Del., and the Fraternal Order of Police Foundation.
The president earned $400,000 from his day job, while the first lady reported $82,335 from her job as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College, according to their tax records. She is the first first lady to have a full-time job while in the White House. The couple also reported some pension income. The Bidens don't have particularly complicated returns for a couple of their stature, reporting limited investments.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff saw significantly less income in 2022 than in 2021, when they raked in $1.66 million.
In 2022, Harris and Emhoff reported a total income of $457,760, while paying a total of $120,870 in federal, Washington, D.C., and California taxes. Emhoff earned nearly $170,000 from his job as a faculty member at Georgetown Law School.
The second couple paid an effective federal tax rate of 20.5%. Harris and Emhoff donated $23,000 to charitable organizations in 2022, according to their return.
As vice president, Harris made $219,171, according to tax records. However, she also reported earning $74,772 in income as a writer. In 2019 her book "The Truths We Hold: An American Journey," was published, and the same year, she also wrote a children's book, "Superheroes are Everywhere." Last year, her income as a writer was $452,664.
Both couples had certified public accountants prepare their 2022 returns.
How do they compare to Trump's tax returns?
In December 2022, the House Ways and Means Committee — after a long legal battle — released six years of former President Donald Trump and his wife Melania's joint tax returns.
The Joint Committee on Taxation said in its report that Trump paid no federal income tax in 2020, the final year of his presidency, and he paid just $750 in income taxes in 2017. He paid $1.1 million in net federal income taxes combined in 2018 and 2019.
The returns from 2015 to 2020 are complex, but all showed large pass-through losses from over 100 business entities, according to forensic accountant Bruce Dubinsky.
The IRS failed to complete required audits of Trump during his four years in office, according to the House Ways and Means Committee.
But CBS News reported in December 2022 that the IRS did conduct required audits on the federal tax returns of the Bidens. One of the audits required the couple to pay $13 more than originally, which they paid.