White House releases Biden’s tax returns in restoration of presidential tradition

The White House has released the 2020 tax returns for both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, restoring a presidential tradition that had been ignored under former President Donald Trump.

The White House also released the first and second families’ financial public financial disclosure reports.

The Bidens filed their federal tax return jointly and reported a federal adjusted gross income of $607,336 and owed $157,414 in federal income tax, according to a summary of their taxes released by the White House. According to the first family’s 1040 form, they paid $162,063 and received a refund of $4,649. Their 2020 effective federal income tax rate is 25.9%.

“The Vice President and the Second Gentleman reported federal adjusted gross income of $1,695,225. They paid $621,893 in federal income tax, amounting to a 2020 effective federal income tax rate of 36.7 percent,” the release from the White House says.

In releasing the tax returns, the White House also took a dig at Trump.

“Today, the President released his 2020 federal income tax return, continuing an almost uninterrupted tradition,” The White House said. Trump never released his tax returns while in office.

CNN is currently reading through the documents.

Trump became the only major party presidential candidate in the post-Watergate era never to release any of his tax returns, claiming multiple times that he was not able to as he was being audited. According to the IRS, every president and vice president is guaranteed an audit every year since the Watergate era.

Psaki appeared to give a veiled criticism of Biden’s predecessor, telling reporters that the White House expects to “continue to release the President’s tax returns as should be expected of all presidents.”

Monday is the official deadline to file 2020 federal tax returns. While the original filing and payment due date was April 15, the IRS pushed the deadline to May 17 to give individual filers, tax preparers and the IRS itself more time to sort through the many changes affecting one’s 2020 taxes from the latest Covid relief package.

Biden released his 2019 tax returns last September while running for president, which showed he and first lady Jill Biden paid nearly $300,000 in federal taxes in 2019 and had an adjusted gross income of about $985,000.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.