Biden releases 2019 tax returns ahead of presidential debate with Trump
WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, released more of their personal tax returns just hours before the first presidential debate with President Donald Trump.
Biden's running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, released her 2019 returns as well.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event on Sept. 27, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The release came just days after a New York Times report said that Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017.
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The Bidens’ returns show the couple paid almost $300,000 in federal taxes in 2019, including almost $288,000 in personal income tax. The Bidens reported taxable income of $944,737.
Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, reported paying $1.05 million in personal income taxes and $1.19 million in total federal taxes on $3.02 million in taxable income.
The New York Times reported this week that Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the year he was elected president, and again in 2017, his first year in office. The Times said Trump paid no federal income taxes for 10 of the 15 years before that.
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Biden and Trump are set to meet Tuesday night for the televised debate at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, and Trump's taxes will likely come up.
Trump has called the reports “fake news,” but has not released his returns himself. Trump has argued that he can't release his returns because his taxes have been under audit by the Internal Revenue Service.
The president broke with a decades-old precedent by not releasing his returns as a presidential candidate in 2016 or since being elected. Biden had already released two decades' worth of his tax returns, in addition to the federal financial disclosures required of him when he was a senator and vice president.
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Tuesday will be the first of three presidential debates that will take place over the next month. The other two are slated for Oct. 15 and Oct. 22.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. It was reported from Cincinnati.