(Washington) – US President Joe Biden announced his tax return on Monday, an American tradition of transparency at the highest levels of the country, which was temporarily halted under his predecessor in the White House, billionaire Donald Trump.
It is an annual custom, and this non-mandatory practice is supposed to maintain citizens' confidence in their political leaders. Other political figures participate in it, in addition to candidates in local and national elections.
According to their announcement, the Bidens earned $619,976 in 2023, most of which came from the president's $400,000 salary and his wife Jill Biden's $85,985 compensation for her teaching job in Virginia, near Washington, D.C.
These revenues have increased compared to previous years: approximately $580,000 in 2022 and approximately $610,000 in 2021.
“President Biden believes that all tenants of the Oval Office should be open and honest with the American people,” the White House said in a statement. “The long tradition of releasing presidents’ tax returns annually should continue without interruption,” she added, a veiled reference to the Trump era.
Because the publication of the Biden couple's statement this year comes a few months before the presidential elections in November that pit the current Democratic president against Republican Donald Trump.
Donald Trump, a famous businessman and media mogul before he became an idol of the American right, has chosen not to follow the tradition of transparency maintained by other presidents, Democrats and Republicans alike.
As a candidate and then as president between 2017 and 2021, he refused to publish his tax returns.
But many of his statements were ultimately issued after a Democratic-led battle in Congress. It turns out that Donald Trump, for several years, paid almost no income tax, due to his business losses.
