What Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2023 tax returns say

Mayor Brandon Johnson launched his most up-to-date tax returns to the Tribune this month, with the paperwork displaying he’s much less rich than his predecessors and earns no exterior earnings.

Johnson’s tax returns present his household took in simply over $176,000 in wages for 2023, his first 12 months as Chicago’s mayor. His annual wage that 12 months was $216,210 and he started his time period in mid-May.

After claiming the $27,700 commonplace deduction on submitting collectively along with his spouse Stacie and a $6,000 baby tax credit score, information present Johnson paid $17,302 in federal taxes, an efficient tax charge of 11.65%. Johnson didn’t declare every other funding earnings, pension fund distributions or capital features in 2023.

He individually paid just below $8,000 in state earnings taxes, after getting a $140 tax credit score for property taxes he paid on his Austin dwelling.

2023 was the best wage Johnson has earned since 2019. The Johnson household’s family earnings will enhance for subsequent 12 months’s efficiency, as his 2024 wage as mayor of Chicago rose to simply over $221,000.

The Tribune requests the Chicago mayor’s tax returns annually, a long-standing custom in American politics relating to main public places of work. Politicians aren’t required to make their earnings tax varieties public, however many achieve this to display transparency about potential conflicts – particularly vital to many citizens in Illinois, the place generations of politicians have enriched themselves by means of their authorities roles.

Johnson, who grew up in suburban Elgin and famously touted himself as a West Sider, has usually drawn inspiration from his humble upbringing when portraying himself as a progressive looking for to enact quite a lot of “tax the wealthy” proposals.

During the 2023 marketing campaign, he responded to criticism over unpaid water payments to town by saying his debt signifies he understands the plight of struggling Chicagoans, though by then he was employed as a county commissioner and marketing campaign organizer Chicago Teachers Union.

However, Johnson’s tax varieties present that his historic earnings is extra modest than that of his predecessors, Lori Lightfoot and Rahm Emanuel, whereas in workplace. Lightfoot, who grew up within the working-class city of Massillon, Ohio, reported incomes $402,414 in adjusted gross earnings in 2021, the latest 12 months the Tribune requested her returns. He reported taking $210,000 in early distributions from retirement accounts that 12 months to complement his mayoral wage.

While working as a accomplice on the regulation agency Mayer Brown earlier than changing into mayor, Lightfoot reported a mean adjusted gross earnings of $971,626 from 2014 to 2017.

Emanuel reported incomes $554,000 whereas serving as mayor in 2017, together with $353,000 from curiosity, dividends and capital features from investments.

Johnson didn’t present his full 2022 return, because the Tribune additionally requested, however his newest filings and different returns relationship again to 2018 offered by his marketing campaign to the Tribune throughout the mayoral race present the household reported about $161,782 within the 2022, $161,000 in 2021 and $160,000 in 2020.

Between 2018 and 2022, Johnson labored two jobs as a county commissioner incomes $85,000 a 12 months and a separate earnings for the Chicago Teachers Union. His union pay diversified from 12 months to 12 months. His highest gross wage earlier than changing into mayor was in 2019, when he earned about $94,000 on prime of his county wage, in response to federal CTU disclosures.