The former vice president’s taxes were released days after a report that President Trump paid no federal income taxes in 10 out of 15 years beginning in 2000
California Sen. Kamala Harris 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.
“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, which passed through corporations they had established.
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.
But in the two years after he left the White House, Biden made $15.6 million, largely through speaking fees and book profits. He and Jill made $11 million in 2017 and $4.6 million in 2018, and paid $3.7 million in taxes in 2017 and $1.5 million in 2018, financial documents released by Biden’s campaign last year show.
The bombshell Times report on Trump’s taxes draws on more than two decades of tax information and outlines Trump’s extensive financial losses and years of tax avoidance.
Trump’s taxes also show he claimed a $72.9 million refund, which has become the subject of an Internal Revenue Service audit, for taxes he had paid between 2005 and 2008.
Trump denied the Times story at a White House briefing on Sunday and claimed that he pays “a lot” in federal income taxes.
This story has been updated with additional information about Biden and Trump’s tax returns.
CNN’s Arlette Saenz and Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.
