Biden daughter adds to lengthy family history of tax issues
President Biden has repeatedly called for wealthy individuals and corporations to cough up more money in taxes, even as Biden family members repeatedly failed to pay their own taxes.
Fox News Digital reported Monday that Ashley Biden, the president's daughter, owes over $5,000 in income taxes, according to a tax lien. She's the latest in a string of Bidens who have faced such situations over the years.
"The scale is not anything like Hunter, but… Joe is constantly talking about how wealthy and connected people do not pay their fair share and can afford to pay more, and it just so happens that both of his living children did not pay their taxes," Garrett Ziegler, the founder of nonprofit Marco Polo and former President Trump aide, told Fox News Digital.
"This is just another example of the Bidens being careless," he said. "You'd think that they would show a little bit more prudence when you're the American first family to make sure you don't have any tax liens on you, especially going into an election year."
BIDEN'S DAUGHTER OWES THOUSANDS IN INCOME TAXES, LIEN DOCUMENTS SHOW
The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue in Philadelphia County notified Ashley Biden on Dec. 1st about her unpaid taxes. The lien listed the start date as Jan. 1, 2015, when Joe Biden was serving as the vice president in the Obama administration, and it ended on Jan. 1, 2021, just days before he entered office as president.
Hunter Biden, meanwhile, allegedly carried out a multiyear scheme to bypass paying $1.4 million in federal taxes while living an indulgent lifestyle that included spending significant sums on escorts and illegal drugs, according to his California indictment on nine tax-related charges.
Special Counsel David Weiss said he "engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020," which was in the middle of his dad's presidential campaign.
Weiss added that, in "furtherance of that scheme," Hunter Biden "subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company, Owasco, PC by withdrawing millions" from the company "outside of the payroll and tax withholding process that it was designed to perform."
Hunter Biden had allegedly "spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills," and in 2018, "stopped paying his outstanding and overdue taxes for tax year 2015." He faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted.
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However, Hunter and Ashley are not alone, as several other Biden family members have also faced tax issues. President Biden's brother, James Biden, previously had at least five liens filed against him between 1995 and 2015, including one in the amount of $589,095, the Washington Free Beacon reported in 2020.
President Biden's other brother, Frank Biden, previously had at least three tax liens for unpaid income taxes. President Biden's sister, Valerie Biden Owens, and her husband, John Owens, have faced at least five tax liens, including one in the amount of $229,749 in 1990, according to the Free Beacon.
Despite his family's tax issues, President Biden has repeatedly called on the rich to pay their fair share in taxes and vowed to go after "tax cheats."
"Corporations need to pay their fair share in taxes," Biden posted on social media in November 2019. "I'll reverse Trump's giveaway to the super-wealthy and corporations because it's time we reward work, not just wealth."
"As president, I'll make sure giant corporations and the super-wealthy pay their fair share in taxes — and then invest that money in growing a stronger, more inclusive middle class," he wrote weeks later in December 2019.
Biden has persisted in the calls throughout his presidency and, at one point, proposed doubling the number of Internal Revenue Service workers to target tax cheats.
"The president's compliance proposals are designed to ameliorate existing inequities by focusing on high-end evasion," the Treasury Department wrote in a report, according to Politico.
"These unpaid taxes come at a cost to American households and compliant taxpayers as policymakers choose rising deficits, lower spending on necessary priorities, or further tax increases to compensate for the lost revenue."
Biden has also said paying higher taxes is "patriotic" and has regularly singled out the rich.
"For too long we've had an economy that gives every break in the world to the folks who need it the least. It's time to grow the economy from the bottom up," Biden said months after entering office and calling on the rich to pay their "fair share" in taxes.
"I'm a capitalist, but just pay your fair share," Biden said at his State of the Union address this year.
The White House, Frank Biden, Valerie Biden Owens and James Biden did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Ashley Biden did not respond to a previous request for comment.