Biden Avoids Funding Medicare and Senior Entitlement

According to Joe Biden, “millions of Americans with disabilities are under enough stress without Trump putting their hard-earned Social Security benefits in doubt.”

Hypocrisy is rampant among politicians, but “basement Joe” might want to think twice before he emerges from his cellar, Chris Jacobs suggests in the WSJ.

Protecting Taxable Wages with an S-Corporation

Mr. Biden’s objections mig­ht be more persuasive had he and his wife, Jill, not gone out of their way to avoid funding seniors’ entitlement benefits. According to their tax returns, in 2017 and 2018, the Bidens … avoided payroll taxes on nearly $13.3 million in income from book royalties and speaking fees. They did so by classifying the income as S-corporation profits rather than taxable wages.

The Bidens did pay themselves “salaries” from their corporations—CelticCapri Corp. and Giacoppa Corp.—of nearly $750,000 between them over two years, and they paid full taxes on that income. But they circumvented the payroll tax on the nearly 95% of their income that remained. A tax expert interviewed by the Journal in 2019 called the Bidens’ scheme “pretty aggressive”; another told the paper it served solely to avoid the payroll taxes. 

Biden Uses Another Loophole

Joe and Jill Biden didn’t avoid any Social Security tax, which applied only to the first $127,200 of income in 2017 and $128,400 in 2018, according to Mr. Jacobs.

But under Mr. Biden’s tax plan, which would impose the 12.4% Social Security tax on income over $400,000, the same loophole he used in 2017-18 would shield him from his own tax.

Biden Avoids Taxes on Half a Millions Dollars

And how can Mr. Biden claim to protect Medicare and ObamaCare when he avoided more than $500,000 in taxes that fund the two programs?

One has to wonder why the media have largely ignored the Biden’s accounting sleight of hand. Instead they fixate on Mr. Trump’s tax returns.

But at least President Trump is not looking to raise taxes on everyone else.