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During his town hall on CNN, Bernie Sanders said that he will release all his tax returns soon. The reason he didn’t in 2016, he said, was because he hadn’t won the nomination.
Sanders said that the taxes are boring and the only reason they haven’t been released yet is due to mechanical issues. His wife prepares their taxes, he said.
“Our tax returns will bore you to death, nothing special about it. It was just a mechanical issue,” he said about why they aren’t released yet. When asked specifically when they would be released he said: “Sooner rather than later.”
Sanders did release his 2014 tax return in 2016.
The tax return shows his salary and an itemized list of deductions and income. We’re providing a few screenshots to help you decipher the return. It’s relatively straightforward, since Sanders has a lower income when compared to other candidates. True to form, as Sanders warned, the tax return is “boring.”
For example, here you can see his income was $156,441 in wages, plus $39,281 in Social Security benefits and $4,982 in pensions. They also had business income of $4,900.
Bernie Sanders tax return (BernieSanders.com)
The 1040 summary of the tax return had already been released, quite a while ago. People were wanting to see all the schedules and itemized deductions, which are on this one.
Among the deductions on his 2014 return were:
- $22,946 on home mortgage interest
- $14,843 on real estate taxes
- $9,666 on state and local income taxes
- $8,000 in gifts to charity
- $350 in gifts to charity other than by cash or check
- $4,473 in unreimbursed job expenses, which according to tax law can include fees such as union dues and travel
Jane Sanders, his wife, also brought in an additional income of $4,900. As you can see in the screenshot below from the tax return, they did not claim any expenses from her business:
Bernie and Jane Sanders claimed no expenses from Jane’s business. (BernieSanders.com)
Sanders has earned more recently due to sales from his book.
In other tax news from the CNN Town Hall, Sanders said that he will pay for many of his policies by closing tax loopholes and taxing Wall Street speculation.
“Wolf is going to ask me in three minutes, how are we going to pay for that?” he said about free tuition and education. “We are going to pay for that by a tax on Wall Street speculation.”