Washington —

Tax Day revealed major differences between Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s approaches to governing: The presidential candidates have conflicting ideas about how much to disclose about their finances and the best way to boost the economy through tax policy.

Democratic President Joe Biden plans to release his income tax returns on Monday, the IRS filing deadline. On Tuesday, he plans to give a speech in Scranton, Pennsylvania, laying out why wealthy people should pay more taxes to reduce the federal deficit and fund programs for the poor and middle class.

Biden proudly says he spent much of his decades-long career in public service without money, unlike Trump, who inherited hundreds of millions from his father and used his own Billionaire status launched a television show and later a presidential campaign.

“For 36 years, I’ve been ranked as the poorest person in Congress,” Biden told donors in California in February. “not kidding.”

In 2015, as part of his campaign, Trump declared, “I’m really rich.”

The Republican former president argued that voters don’t need to see his tax data and that past financial disclosures are enough. He insists that keeping taxes low on the wealthy will spur investment and bring more jobs, while raising taxes will devastate an economy still recovering from inflation that hit a four-year peak in 2022.

“Biden wants to provide more cash to the IRS by proposing the largest tax increase in history on the American people, who are already reeling from record inflation,” said Trump campaign press secretary Carolyn Leavitt. suffered losses due to the crisis.”

For whoever wins November’s election, this division transcends ideological differences and becomes a very real challenge. By the end of 2025, many of the tax cuts Trump signed into law in 2017 are set to expire—and with the national debt expected to climb to unprecedented levels, people at different income levels will face a plethora of choices about how much they should pay in taxes.

Extending all tax breaks, including interest costs, could add another $3.8 trillion to the national debt by 2033, according to an analysis last year by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Biden wants to keep most of the tax breaks, as he promised that people making less than $400,000 would not have to pay more in taxes. But he released a budget proposal this year that would raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations that would raise $4.9 trillion in revenue over 10 years and cut the projected deficit by $3.2 trillion.

Still, he told voters he fully supports letting Trump-era tax cuts expire.

“Does anyone here think the tax code is fair? Show your hands,” Biden told a crowd at Union Station in Washington on Tuesday that tended to dislike Trump’s broad tax cuts, which helped many in the middle class but skewed disproportionately toward the wealthy. family.

“It has increased the national debt more than any presidential term in history,” Biden continued. “And it’s expiring next year. Guess what? I want to be president because it’s expired — and it keeps expiring. ”

Trump has called for higher tariffs on foreign-made goods, taxes that could hit consumers in the form of higher prices. But his campaign is committed to cutting taxes while promising that a Trump presidency would reduce the national debt that has grown over decades, including during his time in the Oval Office.

“When President Trump returns to the White House, he will advocate for more tax cuts for all Americans and revitalize the U.S. energy industry to lower inflation, lower the cost of living, and pay down our debt,” Levitt said. “

Most economists say Trump’s tax cuts won’t generate enough growth to pay down the national debt. An analysis released Friday by Oxford Economics found that a “blanket Trump” policy of cutting taxes, raising tariffs and blocking immigration would slow economic growth and increase inflation.

One of Biden’s proposals is a “billionaire minimum income tax,” which would impose a 25% minimum tax rate on households with a net worth of at least $100 million.

The tax would directly target billionaires like Trump, who has refused to release his personal income taxes as presidents traditionally do. But Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee released six years of his tax returns in 2022.

In 2018, Trump earned more than $24 million and paid about 4% in federal income taxes. The congressional panel also found that the IRS delayed its statutory audit of Trump during his presidency, concluding that the audit process was “dormant at best.”

Biden has publicly released more than two decades of his tax returns. In 2022, he and his wife, Jill, earned $579,514 and paid nearly 24% of that amount in federal income tax, more than twice the rate Trump paid.

Trump maintains that his tax record is complicated by his use of various tax credits and past business losses, which in some cases allowed him to avoid paying taxes. He also previously refused to release his tax returns, claiming the IRS was conducting an audit of his pre-presidential filings.

His finances were recently boosted by the stock market debut of Trump Media, which controls Trump’s favorite social media site, Truth Social. Shares initially soared, adding billions to Trump’s net worth, but investor sentiment toward the company has since gradually soured, with shares down more than 50% from their peak as of Friday.

The former president also faces a $542 million legal verdict in a civil fraud case, as well as a lawsuit against author E. Jean Carroll over comments he made that damaged her reputation after he accused him of sexual assault. (E. Jean Carroll) Penalties.

In the civil fraud case, New York Judge Arthur Engoron looked at the Trump Organization’s financial records and, after looking at the inflated assets, concluded: “The fraud discovered here stands out. Shock to the conscience.”