JD Vance once advocated for political candidates to release their tax returns as “an important part of transparency” and said he was fine revealing his financial information.
Vance has famously abandoned many of his values and morals since publishing his book Hillbilly Elegy, and his commitment to financial transparency is another casualty in his rise to the top of the Republican Party as Donald Trump’s running mate.
According to Newsweek, Vance has not released any tax returns since becoming the Republican nominee for vice president in July.
Learn more about Vance’s reversal on financial transparency of candidates running for public office:
- JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, has not yet publicly released his federal tax returns—despite previously saying it was important to reveal them.
- In not releasing tax returns, Vance would be following in the footsteps of former President Donald Trump, who heads their ticket and is one of only two presidents over the past five decades who did not voluntarily release his tax returns.
- According to remarks made at an April 2022 campaign event, Vance, who is also the junior senator in Ohio, called releasing tax returns “an important part of transparency” and said he was fine with doing just that.
- Since then, Vance has not released any tax returns. Representatives for Vance did not respond to Newsweek’s request for comment.
- Public interest in Vance’s finances is heightened by his rags-to-riches backstory. Vance grew up in an Ohio town with a mother who went through periods of drug addiction. Now, according to Forbes, Vance is worth an estimated $10 million. He has worked as an investor and started his own venture firm Narya in 2018. He became a national figure after he published his memoir Hillbilly Elegy in 2016.
- Speaking at an event in Dayton, Ohio, in April 2022, Vance—then a candidate for the Senate—indicated support for revealing his tax information. He said: “I have to reveal my tax returns and I’m fine with that. I think that’s an important part of transparency, I’m not gonna complain about it. I have to reveal my tax returns. I have to reveal the stocks that I own. I have to reveal my financial history.”
- His Democratic counterpart in the 2024 presidential race, Tim Walz, has released tax returns. The most recent 2023 returns for him and his wife Gwen Walz showed he earned $298,724, with $112,493 coming from his salary as Minnesota governor. The couple paid $54,199 in federal income taxes.
- In July 2024, Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris released 20 years of tax returns. She had released 15 years of federal tax returns when she ran for president in the 2019 Democratic primary. In their 2023 tax returns, which they made public this year, Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff reported a gross income of over $450,000 and said they paid $88,570 in federal income taxes.
- In April 2024, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden released their 2023 tax returns, showing the couple made a combined income of $619,976 last year and paid $146,629 in federal income tax.
- While in office, Trump did not release his tax returns. He said they were under audit while he was a candidate in 2016, although it is still possible to release tax returns that are under audit. He was ordered to provide them for the years 2015 to 2020 to the House Ways and Means Committee following a 2022 Supreme Court ruling.
- A petition calling on Vance to release 10 years of tax returns has accrued over 45,000 signatures.
- Speaking to Newsweek, Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel, and senior director, ethics at the nonpartisan democracy campaign group Campaign Legal Center (CLC) said voters have a right to know the financial interests of elected officials. When they don’t disclose these details, it “raises a red flag,” he said.
Read the entire Newsweek article here.
Published: Sep 12, 2024