Cruz questions Biden tax return in year of alleged bribe payment
Ted Cruz has called on Joe Biden to release information on the 'mystery source' of $10million he made in 2017, the year his term as vice president ended.
After his term in the Obama White House ended, Biden and his wife Jill signed a lucrative multi-book deal valued at $8million, and launched a speaking tour that brought in more than $4million over several years.
However, income from the book deal and speeches was routed through two entities, known as S corporations, shielding the money from certain taxes and concealing the ultimate source on tax returns the Bidens have publicly released.
Now Cruz, a Texas Republican, is pointing to that lack of transparency in connection with an FBI memo that Republicans claim shows Biden was involved in a $5 million bribery scheme when he was vice president.
'You're looking at a tax return that has $10 million in cash that came from a mystery source,' Cruz said on Friday during his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Biden's two S corporations, CelticCapri Corp and GiaCoppa Corp, reported income of $9,490,857 and $557,882 respectively in 2017, Biden's first year as a private citizen after decades in federal elected office as a senator and the vice president.
That money, which Biden says is from book deals and speeches, was then remitted to Biden and his wife primarily as 'distributions' rather than salary, according to CNBC.
When money is funneled through an S corporation in this way, the recipient doesn't owe Social Security or Medicare taxes on it, and the source of the money is obscured.
Cruz claimed the 'timing' of the income infusion was suspicious in light of unverified allegations of a $5 million 'arrangement' of an exchange of money for policy decisions between then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national.
The claim is based on an FBI document viewed by members of Congress, which describes an interview with an informant.
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Cruz and others in Congress should be questioning Biden's tax accountants who prepared the return to find what they were told about the source of the income.
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