On Tuesday, Former Vice president Joe Biden released his 2019 tax returns showing that he and his wife, Jill, paid nearly $300,000 in federal income tax last year and had an adjusted gross income of about $985,000.
Biden’s release of his 2019 tax returns come hours before the first presidential debate and two days after The New York Times reported that President Donald Trump paid no federal income taxes whatsoever in 10 out of 15 years beginning in 2000.
According to The Times, Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. Trump has not released his tax returns to the public, which breaks decades of precedent for major-party presidential nominees and presidents.
Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) also released her 2019 tax returns on Tuesday, which showed that she and her husband, Doug Emhoff, paid about $1.2 million in taxes and had an adjusted gross income of about $3 million, CNN reports.
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“This is a historic level of transparency and it will give the American people faith once again that their leaders will look out for them and not their own bottom line,” Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield told reporters on Tuesday, noting that Biden has now released more than two decades of tax returns.
The Bidens made $14,700 in charitable donations, according to the tax documents. They show the Bidens earned income from Northern Virginia Community College, where Jill Biden teaches, and the University of Pennsylvania, where Joe Biden led a center for diplomacy. They also earned income from speeches and books.
Biden was a six-term senator before joining Barack Obama’s presidential ticket, and his financial disclosures often showed that he was among the Senate’s least wealthy members. He has described himself as “Middle Class Joe” on the campaign trail.
