WashPost ‘Fact Checker’ Rushes to Defend Tax Avoidance by the Bidens

On Sunday, Washington PostGlenn Kessler, a “fact-checker”, took on Joe and Jill Biden’s tax avoidance during Trump’s years. He channeled funds through an “S corp.” The “Pinocchios,” however, were not awarded. Kessler seemed to want to prove that it was perfectly okay for the Bidens to take advantage of tax loopholes President Obama attempted to close. Kessler opened the discussion with this quote: 

“Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.”

— Judge Learned Hand, opinion in Helvering v. Gregory, 1934

Rep. Jim Banks was the target of this case: “In recent week, Rep. Jim Banks(R-Ind. He has cited a report by the Congressional Research Service, (CRS), that showed that he says shows “multimillionaire Joe Biden’s use of corporate loopholes to avoid paying taxes.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the story “has been debunked.” A reader asked us to sort this out, so let’s take a look.” He also noted that Biden has released tax returns for 23 years, which is more than Donald Trump.

Kessler stated that “CRS didn’t look at Biden’s particular tax situation,” but more generally and “None directly mirror Biden’s tax situation.” Kessler also said that Banks was being partisan. 

In a letter to Biden earlier this year, Banks decried what he called Biden’s “hypocrisy” and demanded he “pay these funds back to the American people.” (We should note that we cannot find an instance where Banks made a similar demand of Trump — who used many tax-avoidance strategies and once declared that not paying income taxes “makes me smart.”)

Robert Willens, a Columbia tax expert, was the “fact-checker”, who declared that Biden was perfectly fine. 

“I don’t have any problem with what he did. He would be almost homeless if he hadn’t channeled his income through an S corp..” He added: “I’ll leave the morality of him adopting this strategy, particularly given his track record of attempting to ensure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes, to others to comment on.”

Kessler then concluded with a Biden criticism of the Republicans. 

“The President has released over 22 years of tax returns and is proud to have restored the bipartisan tradition of being transparent with the American people about the personal finances of the chief executive,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. “After a 4-year hiatus, he also welcomes this born-again support for that critical tradition from congressional Republicans, and congratulates them on their 180.”

This became an “hypocrisy test” and not a fact-check. Even then Kessler declared that the issue was in the “eye of the beholder.” Also, Democrats are at the Post They can vote for the same president, which is not unpatriotic.

Biden’s hypocrisy or not, is entirely up to you. Interpretation is open to all, so it’s up to the individual to decide if his tax strategy was aggressive or more commonplace. As president, he’s now taken steps to close the very loophole that may have saved him a significant sum of money. Biden paid an enormous tax bill. As Hand will point out, however, Biden still had to pay a substantial tax bill. he did not have a “patriotic duty” to voluntarily increase the size of his tax payment.