Accounting
Bidens paid 23.7% effective federal rate in tax-day disclosure
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden paid $146,629 in federal income taxes on a combined $619,976 in adjusted gross income in 2023 — meaning the first family paid an effective federal income tax of 23.7% — according to tax filings released by the White House.
The amount represents a slight uptick in both income and taxes paid compared to the previous year, driven in part by a small raise for the first lady, a professor at Northern Virginia Community College, and increased Social Security benefits.
The Bidens donated just over $20,000 to charity, led by a $5,000 donation to the Beau Biden Foundation, named for the president’s late son. Other donations benefited St. Joseph on the Brandywine, the Bidens’ home parish, and the National Fraternal Order of Police Foundation.
Yuri Gripas/Bloomberg
Despite the increase in income — the Bidens made a combined $579,514 in adjusted gross income the previous year — the president’s effective federal income rate fell slightly, from 23.8%. The returns, which were released Monday to coincide with the federal tax-filing deadline, showed that the Bidens won’t receive a refund this year and instead had to write a $334 check to the federal government. The Bidens paid a penalty in the amount of $285 for not making enough estimated federal income tax payments before filing the return.
The White House noted that this was the 26th year the Bidens publicly disclosed their tax returns, offering an implicit contrast with former President Donald Trump. Biden’s opponent in November’s presidential election has declined to release his tax returns, and his personal finances made headlines in recent months as he struggled to post a bond to appeal a civil fraud verdict related to his company’s activities in New York state.
“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 White House said in a statement.
Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff also released their federal and state returns Monday, showing they earned a combined adjusted gross income of $450,299 and paid $88,570 in federal income taxes.
The couple paid $26,766 in California and District of Columbia income taxes and contributed $23,026 to charity. Like the first family, Harris and Emhoff owed a penalty — $451 — for not making enough estimated payments.
The disclosures come as lawmakers on Capitol Hill are girding for a fight next year over the renewal of tax cuts passed during Trump’s presidency. Biden has proposed letting the tax rates on corporations and Americans making over $400,000 per year increase, while offering credits for families with children and high mortgage rates — a proposal he’s expected to detail Tuesday during a trip to the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
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Employment rose by a stronger than expected 228,000 jobs in March, although the unemployment rate inched up one-tenth of a point to 4.2%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
Despite the mostly upbeat jobs report, the stock markets nevertheless plunged amid widespread concern over the
The professional and business services sector added 3,000 jobs, but lost 700 jobs in accounting, tax preparation, payroll and bookkeeping services. The biggest job gains occurred in health care, social assistance, transportation and warehousing. Employment also grew in the retail trade industry, in part due to the return of workers from a strike in the food and beverage industry. But federal government employment declined by 4,000 in March, after a loss of 10,000 in February, amid job cuts ordered by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. However, the Internal Revenue Service is
Average hourly earnings rose in March by 9 cents, or 0.3%, to $36.00. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased 3.8%.
Trump boasted about the jobs report in an all-caps
Congressional Democrats disagreed. “Unemployment is rising, and this seems to be the last report buoyed by Democrats’ blockbuster job creation,” said House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Richard Neal, D-Massachusetts, in a statement. “Recession odds are getting higher by the day as Trump plagues our economy with the largest tax hike in decades. Wages would need to skyrocket for the people to weather Trump’s higher prices and needless uncertainty. This report doesn’t yet reflect the dangerous firings of thousands of public servants or the layoffs that started hours after he announced the Trump Tariff Tax. This administration is ruling through the lens of billionaires — sacrificing workers’ paychecks, destroying trillions of dollars in savings and retirement wealth, readying
Economists are predicting fallout from the historic tariff increases announced by Trump. “We now have more clarity on the trade policy following ‘Liberation Day’ on April 2,” wrote Appcast chief economist Andrew Flowers. “The average effective tariff rate is now above the level set by the Smoot-Hawley tariffs in 1930. This is one of the largest changes to economic and global trade policy since President Nixon’s decision to move away from the gold standard more than 50 years ago. The impending fallout from retaliatory tariffs from our trading partners across Europe and Asia will radically shift employment growth across manufacturing, retail and construction as consumer goods prices rise.”
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