Newsoms’ tax returns: $1.3 million made in ’16
Gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, reported nearly $1.3 million in adjusted gross income in 2016, according to tax returns provided by his campaign.
More than $900,000 of the couple’s $1.29 million income came from businesses in which Newsom and his wife hold an ownership stake. The couple earned $787,751, the most outside of their salaries, from their stake in Airelle Wines, which runs Napa wineries.
The couple reported $428,661 in wages. That included Newsom’s lieutenant governor salary, Siebel Newsom’s $150,000 salary at the Representation Project social justice nonprofit she leads, and $154,385 from the Girls Club Entertainment production company she runs.
They paid $332,087 in federal taxes and $120,297 in state taxes. Their federal income tax rate was 35 percent.
The couple made $110,182 in charitable contributions, about 8 percent of their adjusted gross income.
Their 2016 income was similar to what they have reported in previous years. From 2010 to 2015, they averaged $1.4 million in income and $102,212 in charitable contributions annually, according to returns that Newsom and his wife have previously released.
One difference is that, unlike past years, they sold no silver bars in 2016. Over the past several years, the couple made several hundred thousand dollars trading silver. In 2011, for example, they made $499,452 trading the metal.
One of Newsom’s rivals in the June 5 gubernatorial primary, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, mocked
Newsom’s silver trading in a debate in January.
“Most people don’t know anything about silver bars except for some people who might have some connection to the silver bar industry,” Villaraigosa said.
Although they didn’t sell any silver, Newsom and his wife did pay $725 to store the metal in 2016, their tax returns show.
Last May, Newsom was the first major candidate to release his taxes from previous years, but said he hadn’t yet completed his 2016 returns. His Democratic rivals released their 2016 taxes last year and have been pressuring Newsom to do likewise.
Villaraigosa, in particular, has criticized Newsom for becoming wealthy while serving full-time in elective office for nearly two decades.
“I started my businesses before I was in elective offices and they’ve grown,” Newsom told The Chronicle’s editorial board this week. “It’s a point of pride and enthusiasm that they’ve grown. I have an exceptionally gifted sister (Hilary Newsom Callan), who started marketing for me and now is running the businesses.
“And,” Newsom quipped, she “is desperate for me to win because she doesn’t want to see me back running the businesses.”