Entrepreneur Andrew Yang released eight years of his tax returns on Wednesday, joining many of his fellow Democratic presidential candidates in disclosing information about their finances and wealth.
Yang released the 2011 to 2018 tax returns on his website. They cover the period after he created his business Venture for America, a program that helps recent college graduates get work experience at startups by offering two-year fellowships. The returns don’t include the years when Yang worked at several startups himself or when he worked and eventually led the tutoring company Manhattan Prep before selling it to Kaplan.
Yang’s campaign told The Hill on Wednesday that the businessman decided to release his tax returns from 2011 because creating Venture for America was “a good milestone in his timeline.” Yang also married Evelyn Lu in 2011, with whom he jointly filed the tax returns.
“Andrew Yang’s tax returns show what America has come to know about him,” Yang spokesperson S.Y. Lee told The Hill. “He’s an entrepreneur at heart while trying to balance the financial interests of his family.”
For most of the years that Yang released on Wednesday, his joint tax returns revealed an adjusted gross income of about $100,00 to $300,000, mostly from Yang. A significant amount of his income came from wages and salaries through 2017, when he stepped down from Venture for America in order to run for president in 2020.
Yang did not report any income from wages and salaries in 2018, though most of his income came from capital gains, writing and speaking gigs, and real estate and royalties. His tax return showed he earned nearly $121,500 last year, with just over $16,500 ― or 13.7% ― going toward his total taxes.
Yang’s charitable givings ranged throughout the years of the returns. The entrepreneur reported charitable contributions of about $126,400 in 2011, though in many of the years they were less than $5,000. Yang gave $5,000 in donations of clothing and shoes in 2012 to Housing Works, a nonprofit. According to his tax return, Yang and his wife bought the clothing and shoes for $50,000, then donated them at a value of 10% of what they paid for.
Forbes has estimated his net worth to be about $1 million and reports his assets are mainly a home north of New York City and an investment portfolio.
Several other candidates vying to be the Democratic nominee ― specifically the front-runners ― have already released their tax returns. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg all released their tax returns in April. Billionaire businessman Tom Steyer (D) released his tax returns in August. Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who just this month entered the race as a Democrat, has not yet released his tax returns.
The country is still waiting on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns. He became the first nominee of a major political party in decades to not release them for the 2016 campaign. House Democrats have been in a long political and legal battle with the White House to try to gain access to Trump’s tax returns, though the Supreme Court on Monday temporarily blocked a lower court’s decision that allowed the House to subpoena the president for his tax records.