President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden earned $579,514 in 2022, slightly lower than their previous year’s earnings, according to new tax returns released Tuesday by the White House.
The release comes on the deadline for Americans to file their taxes with the Internal Revenue Service. The White House also released tax returns showing Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff made $456,918 last year, a significant decline in their income from 2021, when they sold a residence.
The president and first lady paid $169,820 in combined federal, Delaware, and Virginia income taxes last year. Of that, they owed $137,658 to the federal government, which resulted in an effective federal income tax rate of 23.8%.
Their joint income mostly consisted of the president’s $400,000 annual salary, set by Congress, along with pensions. The first couple brought in a little more than $5,000 from two S Corporations – CelticCapri Corp. and Giacoppa Corp. – which the White House has said previously were set up to receive royalties from their writing and speaking engagements.
The income from those corporations was down significantly from a year prior, when they brought in almost $62,000.
The first lady earned $82,335 from her teaching position at Northern Virginia Community College.
The Bidens donated $20,180 to 20 different charities in 2022, including $5,000 to the Beau Biden Foundation. The charity, named after the president’s late son, is aimed at protecting children from abuse.
Other organizations that the couple gave to include the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, a group that offers support to grieving military families, as well as St. Joseph on the Brandywine, a Catholic church that the Bidens attend in Wilmington, Delaware.
The 2022 returns are mostly in line with the taxes filed one year prior, when the Bidens earned $610,702 and paid $150,439 in federal income taxes at a rate of 24.6%.
Harris and Emhoff owed $93,570 in federal income taxes with an effective federal income tax rate of 20.5%.
Harris and Emhoff contributed $23,000 to charity last year, including $5,000 each to Howard University and the University of Southern California, the vice president’s and second gentleman’s respective alma maters.
The White House restored the practice of releasing the president’s and vice president’s tax returns in a show of transparency after it was eschewed by the Trump administration.
“Once again demonstrating his commitment to being transparent with the American people about the finances of the Commander-in-Chief, President Biden has released the most tax returns of any president while in office,” the White House said, noting Biden has now shared 25 years of tax returns.
After years of secrecy, six years of former President Donald Trump’s taxes, including those from his time in the White House, were later released to the public through the House Ways and Means Committee.
They showed the former president paid very little in federal income taxes the first and last year of his presidency, claiming huge losses that helped limit his tax bill, among other revelations.