If IRS Wants to “Crack Down on the Wealthy,” They Can Start by Closing the Biden Tax Gap

The newly-supersized IRS says it will crack down on the wealthy. Perhaps they can start by closing President Biden personal tax gap.

Biden avoided paying up to $500,000 in payroll taxes including $121,000 in Obamacare taxes using “aggressive” and questionable tax maneuvers, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal and as documented in a letter from Congressman Jim Banks (R-Ind.).

As the letter notes, Biden used two S-corporations to avoid paying $500,000 in payroll taxes:

“Your 2017, 2018, and 2019 tax returns show that you and the First Lady sheltered over $13 million of income in two S-corporations: the CelticCapri Corporation and the Giacoppa Corporation. Press reports indicate that you both directed revenue from book royalties and speaking appearance fees into these two corporations.”

Sheltering this income was done for the sole purpose of avoiding tax. As the letter notes:

“Tax experts have questioned the propriety of diverting funds raised from one’s own intellectual property through an S-corporation. One accountant interviewed by the Wall Street Journal said ‘there’s no reason for these [earnings] to be in an S-corp – none, other than to save on self employment tax.”

Biden avoided the 3.8 percent Medicare Payroll Tax, and the 0.9 percent Obamacare “Additional Medicare Tax.” This is clear hypocrisy as Biden supports expanding Obamacare and routinely says “the rich” need to pay their fair share.

With this aggressive maneuver, Biden was able to avoid a tax that the Obama-Biden administration created. 

This is particularly ironic given that Biden has repeatedly railed against the “rich” tax gap.

Biden has also said that paying taxes is a “patriotic” act. By this standard, Biden’s tax avoidance could be seen as unpatriotic.

The Biden tax dodge was first reported in the Wall Street Journal:

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden used a tax loophole that the Obama administration tried and failed to close, substantially lowering his tax bill.

Mr. Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, routed their book and speech income through S corporations, according to tax returns the couple released this week. They paid income taxes on those profits, but the strategy let the couple avoid the 3.8% self-employment tax they would have paid had they been compensated directly instead of through the S corporations.

As noted by WSJ, even left-leaning tax experts called out Biden for his “pretty aggressive” tax maneuvers:

To the extent that the Bidens’ profits came directly from the couple’s consulting and public speaking, “to treat those as other than compensation is pretty aggressive,” said Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a research group run by a former Obama administration official.

Biden has supersized the IRS and now it is time for him to get out his checkbook and pay any taxes owed.