President Joe Biden and his wife Jill made about $30,000 less in 2022 than in the president's first year in office, according to tax returns released today. In total, they earned $579,514 last year, with most of their income coming from the president's standard $400,000 salary.
They paid a combined $169,820 in federal and state income taxes, with payments to Delaware and Virginia, where the first lady works as an instructor at Northern Virginia Community College. She has maintained her day job while performing the duties of first lady. She made $82,335 for her teaching work, an increase from the year before.
Their effective federal tax rate came in at 23.8%. The Bidens contributed $20,180 to charitable causes including their home parish St. Joseph on the Brandywine in Wilmington, Del., and to the Beau Biden Foundation. That charity, which works to ensure children are free from threat and abuse, got their largest gift, $5,000. It was created to honor the president's late son, who died of a brain tumor in 2015.
According to the White House, this marks 25 years of tax returns the Bidens have made public. Biden was vice president for eight of those years and released 22 years of returns during the 2020 campaign to draw contrast between himself and former president Donald Trump.
American presidents traditionally release their tax returns. But former President Donald Trump refused to do so. Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee eventually made those filings public after a lengthy legal fight. The returns showed he paid very little in taxes after business losses.
Harris and Emhoff had a lower tax rate
Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff also released their returns, showing earnings of $456,918. Their effective federal tax rate was 20.5%, coming in lower than the Bidens. This is a steep drop in income from the more than $1.6 million they earned the year before, when Emhoff was a practicing lawyer.
Emhoff, who like the first lady continues to have a day job, teaches at Georgetown University, where he earned $169,665 in 2022. The Vice President lists $219,171 in income from the Senate. As vice president, she also serves as president of the Senate.
Their charitable contributions, totaling $23,000, included contributions to DC Central Kitchen, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Third Baptist Church and Howard University, where the vice president attended college.
