President Joe Biden promised to level the playing field and ensure everyone is paying their fair share in taxes.
But several new reports show how he may not be doing that himself when it comes to his own taxes — and some critics are calling it Biden’s “dirty secret.”
In fact, he’s using an old trick to manipulate his income and duck paying his fair share – the same gimmick he used during his years as a “private citizen” from 2017 through 2020.
Biden, who liked to call himself “Middle Class Joe” and the “one of the poorest men in Congress,” reaped big money after leaving the vice presidency in 2017.
The Washington Post said in 2019 that “since leaving office he has enjoyed an explosion of wealth, making millions of dollars largely from book deals and speaking fees for as much as $200,000 per speech.”
Now, the Federalist says he and his wife, Jill Biden, set up two S corporations for income from those books and speeches – and that income reached stratospheric levels as he geared up for a run for the White House.
“By characterizing most of their income as profits from the corporations rather than wages, the Bidens were able to avoid payroll taxes on more than $13 million worth of income,” the Federalist said in reference to his pre-White House tax returns.
But now that he’s filed a tax return covering his first year as president, the website said he’s still using that trick, “writing off $61,995 in corporate profits as exempt from payroll taxes.”
What’s more, the Federalist says Biden may have even engaged in “potentially illegal tactics” by paying himself a salary as part of his own corporation that’s too low to be considered “reasonable compensation” under IRS guidelines.
Ironically, the Wall Street Journal has noted in the past that Biden’s old boss, Barack Obama, tried repeatedly as president to close that loophole.
Now, Biden is taking advantage of it… all while talking up how he wants everyone to pay their fair share.
“We have to rehire some IRS agents… not to try to make people pay something they don’t owe — just to say, ‘Hey, step up. Step up and pay like everybody else does’,” Biden said last year at a White House event. “Look, I really mean this. If you look at my whole career — I come from the corporate state of America — I just think it’s about just paying your fair share for Lord’s sake.”
He also tweeted:
I’m sick and tired of the super-wealthy and giant corporations not paying their fair share in taxes.
It’s time for it to change.
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 22, 2021
That seems to apply to everyone but him as he continues to duck the tax obligations most other Americans are expected to pay.
Last year, one GOP lawmaker even called him out over it.
“Joe Biden wants to raise taxes by $2.1 trillion while claiming the rich need to pay their ‘fair share.’ But in 2017, multi-millionaire Joe Biden skirted his payroll taxes – the very taxes that fund Medicare and Obamacare,” Rep. Jim Banks,R-Ind., told the New York Post.
He said he asked for the Congressional Research Service for a report on S corporation taxes to see what Biden’s obligations should be.
“According to the criteria CRS provided to my office, he owes the IRS and the American people hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes,” Banks said. “Every American should know about Joe Biden’s tax hypocrisy.”
Now, it looks like he’s up to the same old tricks… and the same media that routinely called out Donald Trump for failing to provide his tax info is letting Biden skate by unchallenged.
The Horn editorial team