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Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info ### I would like to contribute One Time Monthly Yearly Join Now ![](\\" ![](\\" Joe Biden stated on September 9, 2020 in an event in Detroit: “$400,000 ... is more money than I’ve ever made” in a year. ![\\"true\\"](\\" mostly-false/6a6ef6075c162fdccf5eb960e683dcd1.jpg.\\") ![\\"barely- true\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") * Candidate Biography * Taxes * Joe Biden ![\\"Joe](\\" Joe Biden speaks in Warren, Mich., on Sept. 9, 2020. (Screenshot) ![\\"Louis](\\" By Louis Jacobson September 10, 2020 # Fact-checking Joe Biden’s claim about his own income #### If Your Time is short • The Bidens’ adjusted gross income was below $400,000 a year for most of Joe Biden’s career when he was in public service and his wife, Jill, was in teaching. • However, after Biden left the vice presidency, the couple reported adjusted gross incomes in the millions in two successive years, documents show. See the sources for this fact-check Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden talked up his tax plan during a conversation with steelworkers in Detroit. \"Every single thing I talk about, I pay for, by making sure, for the first time, the wealthy begin to pay what they should be paying,\" Biden said Sept. 9. \"We’re not going to punish anybody. No one making under $400,000, which is more money than I’ve ever made, is going to have to pay more taxes.\" Broadly speaking, Biden’s changes would repeal provisions in President Donald Trump’s tax law for taxpayers earning over $400,000 and increase the top corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, among other measures. Independent analysts agree that Biden’s plan would not directly raise taxes for those earning less than $400,000, though those workers could feel the indirect effects of a corporate tax hike. But what about Biden’s description of his own earning history? When Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times reported on the event in Detroit, he noted parenthetically that \"Mr. Biden has, in fact, made more than $400,000; his tax returns from 2017 and 2018 showed income of many multiples that amount.\" That’s correct, based on the combined incomes of Biden and his wife, Jill, as reported on their joint returns. The Tax Notes archive of presidential candidates’ tax returns shows the following adjusted gross incomes for Joe and Jill Biden for the tax years since 1998: #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 23, 2024 in a speech in Las Vegas “Kamala cast the tiebreaking vote to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to go after your tip income.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 28, 2024 1998: $215,432 2005: $321,379 2012: $385,072 1999: $210,797 2006: $248,459 2013: $407,009 2000: $219,953 2007: $319,853 2014: $388,844 2001: $220,712 2008: $269,256 2015: $392,233 2002: $227,811 2009: $333,182 2016: $396,456 2003: $231,375 2010: $379,178 2017: $11,031,309 2004: $234,271 2011: $379,035 2018: $4,580,437 So the Bidens together exceeded the $400,000 threshold by several thousand dollars once, in 2013, and by much larger amounts twice, in 2017 and 2018. (Their 2019 tax return has not yet been made public.) This pattern makes sense: As a senator and later as vice president, Joe Biden’s salary was fixed by law, and Jill Biden worked in teaching. As vice president, Biden earned up to $230,700 a year, and as a senator his annual salary varied from $44,600 when he began serving in the Senate in 1973 to $169,300 by the time he left the chamber in January 2009. The Bidens’ returns going back to 2008 also include income from Social Security benefits. But once Biden departed the vice presidency in January 2017, he could take advantage of more lucrative private-sector opportunities. Both Bidens wrote books afterward, and Joe Biden’s presidential financial disclosure form lists more than four dozen events characterized either as speaking engagements or book tour events, for each of which he typically earned five- and six-figure payments. When we reached out to the Biden campaign, they said he was referring to his full-time annual salaries as a public official, and that as an employee of the New Castle, Del., county council and a U.S. senator, he never made more than $400,000 annually. Our ruling Biden said $400,000 \"is more money than I’ve ever made\" in a year. That was accurate for most of Biden’s career, when he was in public service and his wife Jill was in teaching. But after Biden left the vice presidency, he earned money from speaking engagements and a book tour, and the couple reported a combined adjusted gross income of more than $11 million and $4 million in successive years. We rate the statement Mostly False. #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Thomas Kaplan, Biden pool report, Sept. 9, 2020 Tax Notes, presidential tax return archive, accessed Sept. 10, 2020 Congressional Research Service, \"President of the United States: Compensation,\" Oct. 17, 2012 Congressional Research Service, \"Salaries of Members of Congress: Recent Actions and Historical Tables,\" Aug. 18, 2020 Joe Biden, financial disclosure form, accessed Sept. 10, 2020 PolitiFact, \"Nikki Haley\'s False RNC claim that Biden wants \'massive\' tax hikes on working families,\" Aug. 25, 2020 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Louis Jacobson ![](\\" ![](\\" Jon Tester stated on September 8, 2024 in a Facebook ad: Tim Sheehy “would let politicians like him ban abortion, with no exceptions for rape or to save a woman’s life, and criminalize women.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • September 12, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on September 7, 2024 in a rally in Mosinee, Wis.: Vice President Kamala Harris “cast the tiebreaking votes that caused the worst inflation in American history, costing a typical American family $28,000.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • September 8, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on August 22, 2024 in su discurso de aceptación en la Convención Nacional Demócrata: El expresidente Donald Trump “tiene la intención de promulgar lo que, en efecto, es un impuesto nacional sobre las ventas…que elevaría los precios para las familias de clase media a casi $4,000 al año”. ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Marta Campabadal Graus • September 5, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 23, 2024 in a campaign event in Glendale, Ariz.: “There’s been a 43% increase in violent crimes since I left office.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on August 22, 2024 in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention: Former President Donald Trump \"intends to enact what, in effect, is a national sales tax ... that would raise prices on middle-class families by almost $4,000 a year.\" ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • August 30, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" JD Vance stated on August 25, 2024 in an interview on NBC\'s \"Meet the Press\": “Anything that you lose on the tariff from the perspective of the consumer, you gain in higher wages, so you\'re ultimately much better off.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Louis Jacobson • August 29, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 21, 2024 in a Truth Social post: “The Harris-Biden Administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating Job Statistics.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • August 23, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 8, 2024 in a press conference: Says his Jan. 6, 2021, speech on the White House Ellipse drew the “same number of people,” as the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Louis Jacobson • August 9, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tim Walz stated on August 6, 2024 in un mitin de campaña en Filadelfia: \"El crimen violento aumentó bajo Donald Trump\". ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • August 9, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tim Walz stated on August 6, 2024 in a rally in Philadelphia: “Violent crime was up under Donald Trump.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on July 30, 2024 in a rally in Atlanta: Donald Trump “intends to cut” Medicare. ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Joe Biden stated on August 2, 2024 in a written statement: \"Since Vice President Harris and I took office … incomes have risen faster than prices.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • August 6, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on July 30, 2024 in an event in Atlanta: \"Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • July 31, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Pete Buttigieg stated on July 28, 2024 in an interview on Fox News Sunday: “Even before the pandemic, America went into a manufacturing recession.” ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • July 31, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on July 18, 2024 in a speech in North Carolina: “Today, America has record energy production and we are energy independent.” ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • July 26, 2024 ### Fact-checking Joe Biden’s claim about his own income * ![](\\" ![](\\" Sam Brown stated on August 28, 2024 in a campaign appearance: Proposed Nevada constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights would put “essentially no limit on access to abortion.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Caleb McCullough • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Jon Tester stated on September 8, 2024 in a Facebook ad: Tim Sheehy “would let politicians like him ban abortion, with no exceptions for rape or to save a woman’s life, and criminalize women.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • September 12, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 8, 2024 in a Threads post: “Elon Musk is 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400000 is more money than I’ve ever made in a year