Tim Walz looks like a man who does things by the book. And the book says that if you’re running for president or vice president, you release your tax returns. That’s what the Minnesota governor (D) has done, now that he’s Kamala Harris’s running mate in her important quest to salvage American democracy.
Walz’s tax returns shows someone who lives within his means. Kate Plummer for Newsweek summarizes it thus:
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.
Plummer also notes that
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.
Releasing tax returns is important for transparency. If there’s something in your tax returns you don’t want the American people to see, you should not be running for president or vice president. Senator J. D. Vance (R-Ohio) agrees with me on this point. At least with his words, though not with his deeds so far.
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 [has] an estimated $10 million [in assets minus liabilities]. 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."
Maybe he meant “but only to the extent required by law, regardless of whatever else tradition demands.” So if Newsweek comes calling, Vance is not responding.
The Newsweek article is like from three weeks ago. It wasn’t until today that I became aware that Walz had released his tax returns. I got a text message from some activist organization asking me to sign a petition demanding Vance release his tax returns.
I found a more recent article from USA Today saying that Walz has no investments or real estate, that he lives off his governor’s salary. I was not able to actually read the article because the USA Today website is cluttered and overburdened with ads.
But you can view Walz’s tax returns from 2008 through 2023 on TaxNotes.com. I doubt you’ll find anything exciting. That’s the way it should be.
