Warren's 2018 Tax Return Shows More Than $900,000 in Income

(Bloomberg) -- Elizabeth Warren and her husband reported total family income of $905,742 on their 2018 federal tax return, with $324,687 of that coming from her work as an author and $402,897 from Harvard.

The Massachusetts senator, one of 17 declared candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, released her 2018 tax returns on Wednesday following up on her release in August of the 10 previous years.

"I’ve put out 11 years of my tax returns because no one should ever have to guess who their elected officials are working for," Warren said in a statement. "Doing this should be law."

Warren and her husband, Bruce Mann, reported an adjusted gross income of $846,394 that included $176,280 from her Senate salary. Mann is a Harvard Law School professor.

The couple paid $230,965 in taxes and reported donating $50,128 to charity. They claimed a $13,936 tax credit for “solar electric property costs,” making use of that option before it is phased out.

Their deduction for state and local taxes, often referred to as SALT, was capped at $10,000, as is required under the new federal tax law. But because of the couple’s level of gifts to charity they were still able to itemize rather than take the standard deduction.

Interest and Dividends

The biggest source of investment income on the 2018 return came from $3,897 in interest paid by First National Bank of Omaha. The only ordinary dividends listed -- $1,351 -- are from the "Vanguard Marketing Coporation," which includes a typo on the final word for the listing of the mutual fund giant’s name.

Democrats in Congress and the presidential race are pushing for the release of President Donald Trump’s tax returns, but have been stymied so far. The president has long said that his returns are under audit and he has no plans of releasing them.

“I would love to give them but I’m not going to do it while I’m under audit,” he told reporters at the White House Wednesday. “I got elected last time, the same exact issue, with the same intensity, which wasn’t very much because frankly the people don’t care.”

Other Candidates

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who leads in polls of declared candidates, has said he will release 10 years of his tax returns by Monday, the deadline for filing 2018 returns. Several other candidates in the Democratic race, including senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, have already released at least 10 years of tax returns.

“It’s an obligation for Democrats to release their tax returns,” said Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist in Washington. “If they want to go after Trump for not releasing his, they have to release their returns.”

Warren has proposed increasing taxes on the richest households in the U.S. She has a plan that would impose a 2 percent wealth tax on individuals with more than $50 million in assets. The tax would increase to 3 percent on wealth above $1 billion.

To contact the reporters on this story: John McCormick in Chicago at jmccormick16@bloomberg.net;Laura Davison in Washington at ldavison4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo

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