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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, has not yet publicly released his federal tax returns—despite previously saying it was important to reveal them.
In not releasing tax returns, Vance would be following in the footsteps of former President Donald Trump, who heads their ticket and is one of only two presidents over the past five decades who did not voluntarily release his tax returns.
According to remarks made at an April 2022 campaign event, Vance, who is also the junior senator in Ohio, called releasing tax returns "an important part of transparency" and said he was fine with doing just that.
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Since then, Vance has not released any tax returns, though he has made other public financial disclosures, as mandated by law.
Representatives for Vance did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment on this story.
It is not mandatory for presidents and vice presidents to publish their tax returns, but the process has become customary since 1973, when then President Richard Nixon was accused of not paying enough tax.
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Since then, every president except Trump and Gerald Ford has voluntarily released his returns, and a bipartisan bill has this year been introduced to make this disclosure process compulsory. The taxnotes website shows tax returns for five of the 10 vice presidents since 1973.
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 is worth an estimated $10 million. 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."
His Democratic counterpart in the 2024 presidential race, Tim Walz, has released tax returns. 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.
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.
While in office, Trump did not release his tax returns. He said they were under audit while he was a candidate in 2016, although it is still possible to release tax returns that are under audit.
He was ordered to provide them for the years 2015 to 2020 to the House Ways and Means Committee following a 2022 Supreme Court ruling.
He received some support for not releasing them. Former Texas Republican Representative Kevin Brady argued at the time that it would be dangerous to do so. He said that giving congressional bodies the power to make public the tax returns of private citizens as "a dangerous new political weapon."
Trump's returns showed he paid no federal taxes in 2020, the final year of his presidency, and $750 in 2016 and 2017. He paid close to $1 million in 2018. He has not voluntarily disclosed tax returns since.
Despite not releasing his tax returns, Vance has made other public financial disclosures. Members of Congress and candidates for federal office as well as other government figures are required by law to file annual reports disclosing details about their personal finances including income exceeding $200 and assets worth more than $1,000.
According to Vance's most recent financial disclosure, released in August 2024 by the Federal Election Commission, he has between $4 million and $11 million in assets and $750,000 to $1.5 million in liabilities. He has a property worth between $500,000 and $1 million. Meanwhile, as a U.S. senator, his salary is $174,000.
In May 2023, the Republican Representative and chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, James Comer and Democratic Representative Katie Porter introduced a bill, the Presidential Ethics Reform Act, that would mandate that presidents and vice presidents disclose their tax returns as well as other financial information, including expensive gifts and foreign gifts for the two-year period prior to their time in office, during their time in office, and for two years after leaving office.
A petition calling on Vance to release 10 years of tax returns has accrued over 45,000 signatures.
Speaking to Newsweek, Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel, and senior director, ethics at the nonpartisan democracy campaign group Campaign Legal Center (CLC) said voters have a right to know the financial interests of elected officials. When they don't disclose these details, it "raises a red flag," he said.
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