President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, reported $619,976 in adjusted gross income in 2023, according to their recently published tax forms.
The White House released the president and first lady’s tax returns late Monday afternoon, as well as those of Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
The significant majority of the Bidens’ combined income—$400,000—was credited to President Biden’s annual pay, which was determined by Congress under President Bill Clinton.
Jill Biden reported making $85,985 in 2023 from her teaching position at Northern Virginia Community College. She seemed to have received a raise: when teaching in 2022, she earned $3,650 less. The First Lady also claimed $4,155 in additional earnings from book royalties.
The remainder of Biden’s income comes from taxable interest, pensions and annuities, Social Security benefits, and IRA payouts.
Overall, the Bidens reported paying $146,629 in federal taxes.
Biden’s second-in-command, Harris, and her husband reported earning $450,299 and paid $89,071 in federal taxes.
Harris reported earning $218,784 as vice president and Senate president upon her return. Emhoff reported earning $174,994 in 2023 as a distinguished fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for Technology Law and Policy.
The VP and second gentleman paid $15,167 in California income taxes, while Emhoff paid $11,599 in DC income taxes.
A Tale of Two Presidents
Though the Biden Administration has released copies of Biden and Harris’ tax returns each year they have been in office, the prior president was not as forthcoming about his money.
During former President Donald Trump’s presidency, he repeatedly stated that he was unable to release his own returns due to an ongoing IRS audit. In late 2022, the House Ways and Means Committee disclosed several years of his tax returns, revealing that Trump lost millions of dollars in four of the six years between 2015 and 2020.
In 2020, The New York Times revealed that Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017.
The White House stated that the release of Biden’s tax returns represented “his commitment to being transparent with the American people.”
Meanwhile, his son, Hunter Biden, is accused of tax evasion. Prosecutors claim the president’s son dodged paying $1.4 million in taxes despite living a luxury lifestyle.