OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A Republican lawmaker is alleging that Joe Biden may owe as much as $500,000 in back taxes.
“Joe Biden wants to raise taxes by $2.1 trillion while claiming the rich need to pay their ‘fair share.’ But in 2017, multi-millionaire Joe Biden skirted his payroll taxes — the very taxes that fund Medicare and Obamacare,” said Rep. Jim Banks, who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee.
“According to the criteria CRS provided to my office, he owes the IRS and the American people hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. Every American should know about Joe Biden’s tax hypocrisy,” Banks added,
“Banks said the report indicated that Biden improperly used S corporations while he and first lady Jill Biden raked in over $13 million on speaking fees and book sales in 2017 and 2018, but counted less than $800,000 of it as a salary that could be taxed for Medicare,” Fox News reported.
“Biden is leading the charge to pass a $3.5 trillion bill that would help fund child care, education, and health care. In order to help pay for the cost of the massive legislation, Biden’s plan calls for targeting tax avoidance while raising taxes on people in high-income brackets who Biden claims don’t ‘pay their fair share,'” the report continued.
“A draft of the bill includes a provision that would close loopholes similar to the one Biden used, though the report indicates that Biden would still owe taxes under the current rules, as well,” the Fox report added.
The New York Post reports: “A House Ways and Means Committee draft of the bill would end the accounting trick apparently exploited by Biden and boost IRS funding for audits — but the new report, drafted by the Congressional Research Service and provided to The Post, suggests Biden owes taxes under current rules, according to the congressman who requested it.”
The Post added:
Biden and first lady Jill Biden routed more than $13 million through S corporations and counted less than $800,000 of it as salary eligible for the Medicare tax — exempting the rest from what would have been a 3.8 percent rate, the Wall Street Journal reported. The CRS report doesn’t name Biden but analyzes cases in which the IRS won a judgment against taxpayers who paid themselves suspiciously low salaries from S corporations and counted most of the revenue as “distributions” exempt from the Medicare tax. …
Tax law experts told The Post that the CRS report underscores the long-standing controversy, but that it doesn’t necessarily break new ground. They say the IRS simply doesn’t have the resources to make sure that all S corporations reasonably assess what counts as salary.
“Banks said the report shows Biden improperly used S corporations, the same tax loophole that the Obama administration tried and failed to close so that he could substantially lower his Medicare tax on speaking fees and book sales in 2017 and 2018,” the report added.
New York Rep. Chris Jacobs told the New York Post that “Joe Biden wants to expand the IRS’s funding and authority, so they can audit more Americans.”
“Given that the liberal Tax Policy Center and the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service both have raised questions about the way Biden handled his taxes, why doesn’t he ask for his own taxes to get audited first?” Jacobs asked.
“Biden doesn’t really believe in expanding programs like Medicare and Obamacare, because he thought buying a second multi-million dollar mansion, and renting a third, was more important than helping to fund those laws,” Jacobs concluded.
