Fact Check

Did Biden Say People Making Less Than $400K 'Will Not Pay a Single Penny in Taxes'?

The Biden administration's tax plan will not raise taxes on people making less than $400,000, but those people will still have to pay taxes.

Published May 4, 2021

 (White House / Flickr)
Image Via White House / Flickr
Claim:
U.S. President Joe Biden said people making less than $400,000 won't pay a single penny in taxes.
Context

A viral video clip consists of a genuine excerpt from remarks Biden made during a visit to Tidewater Community College in Virginia. But Biden clearly misspoke when he said people making less than $400,000 "will not pay a single penny in taxes." In his past statements on his economic plan, Biden has claimed that people making less than $400,000 "won't pay a penny more in taxes."

In May 2021, a video started to circulate that supposedly showed U.S. President Joe Biden saying that people making less than $400,000 won't have to pay a single penny in taxes.

This is a genuine clip showing a portion of the remarks Biden delivered during a visit to Tidewater Community College in Portsmouth, Virginia, on May 3, 2021. While the president said that people making under $400,000 would not pay a single penny in taxes during these remarks, that is not what is outlined in the Biden administration's tax plan. Biden misspoke here. A more accurate way of representing his tax plan would have been to say that people making under $400,000 would not see their taxes "raised" by a single penny.

Here's how Fox News reported on this gaffe:

President Biden reiterated his pledge that no American earning less than $400,000 would not pay "a single penny" in additional taxes with a slight twist on Monday, after he proposed several tax increases to fund two sweeping spending plans.

Biden appeared to mistakenly leave out a key word during his speech at Tidewater Community College – instead saying that no one earning under his specified threshold would pay any taxes.

Biden repeatedly promised during his 2020 presidential campaign that people making less than $400,000 "won’t pay a penny more in taxes."

This campaign promise was included in Biden's proposal for the American Families Plan that was released in April 2021:

In all, the American Families Plan includes $1.8 trillion in investments and tax credits for American families and children over ten years. It consists of about $1 trillion in investments and $800 billion in tax cuts for American families and workers. Alongside the American Families Plan, the President will be proposing a set of measures to make sure that the wealthiest Americans pay their share in taxes, while ensuring that no one making $400,000 per year or less will see their taxes go up. When combined with President Biden’s American Jobs Plan, this legislation will be fully paid for over 15 years, and will reduce deficits over the long term.

Biden has repeatedly promised that people making less than $400,000 would not see their taxes raised under his plan. Although a video that showed him saying that people making less than a $400,000 won't "pay a single penny in taxes" is real, the president clearly misspoke during this portion of his speech.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

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