Biden's tax return shows steep fall in income

Joe Biden has brought back a US presidential tradition by releasing his tax return, the White House said.

The filing shows he and his wife earned $607,336 (£430,000) last year and paid $157,414 in federal income tax.

Their income fell from 2019 when they earned $985,223 mostly from speeches, book sales and positions at higher education institutions.

Donald Trump refused to release his tax returns, the first president not to do so since the Watergate era.

Mr Trump claimed he was not able to do so as he was being audited by the Internal Revenue Service, the US government's tax-collection agency.

Ahead of the tax filing's release on Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: "I would expect that we will continue to release the president's tax returns, as should be expected by every president of the United States."

The document shows that during the busy election campaign year the Bidens paid a federal income tax rate of 25.9%, the White House said.

They also donated $30,704 to 10 charities in 2020. The biggest sum of $10,000 went to the Beau Biden Foundation, which campaigns against child abuse and is named after the president's son, who died aged 46 in 2015 of brain cancer.

The Bidens also have assets of between $1.2m and $2.88m, according to their financial disclosure form released on Monday. Mr Biden's salary as president is $400,000.

The Democratic president is proposing tax rises on Americans who earn more than $400,000 in order to pay for one of the biggest expansions of the welfare state in decades and a wide-ranging infrastructure plan.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff also released their joint tax return for 2020.

It showed they had reported a federal adjusted gross income of $1,695,225, said the White House.

The couple paid $621,893 in federal income tax, amounting to a 2020 effective federal income tax rate of 36.7%. 

Ms Harris received an advance of $358,920.50 for her book, The Truths We Hold.

Before the election, Mr Emhoff was a partner in entertainment and intellectual property at multinational law firm DLA Piper.