President Biden may have improperly avoided paying Medicare taxes before he took office and could owe the IRS as much as $500,000, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
The report, which doesn’t mention Mr. Biden by name, analyzed cases where the IRS won a judgment against taxpayers who improperly used S corporations.
An S corporation is a business entity that allows its owners to avoid paying self-employed workers certain taxes. Tax returns released by Mr. Biden and his wife Jill during the campaign showed that their use of an S corporation saved them $500,000 by avoiding the 3.8% self-employment tax.
Republicans seized on the report by CRS, an independent public policy research institute for lawmakers that operates within the Library of Congress.
They said Mr. Biden improperly used S corporations in 2017 and 2018 when they raked in over $13 million from speaking fees and book sales. However, less than $800,000 of that was counted as salary that could be taxed for Medicare.
“Joe Biden wants to raise taxes by $2.1 trillion while claiming the rich need to pay their ‘fair share.’ But in 2017, multimillionaire Joe Biden skirted his payroll taxes — the very taxes that fund Medicare and ObamaCare,” Rep. Jim Banks, Indiana Republican, told the New York Post.
“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,” Mr. Banks said. “Every American should know about Joe Biden’s tax hypocrisy.”
At the time Mr. Biden’s taxes were released, the campaign defended his tax returns.
“As demonstrated by their effective federal tax rate in 2017 and 2018 — which exceeded 33% — the Bidens are committed to ensuring that all Americans pay their fair share,” the Biden campaign said in a statement at the time.
Mr. Biden is pushing to fund his massive $3.5 trillion bill that would fund new child care, education, and health care benefits by taxing the wealthy and corporations. He also wants to close tax loopholes similar to the one he used on his taxes.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.