Gavin Newsom Releases Tax Returns Amid 2028 Presidential Speculation

Outgoing California Gov. Gavin Newsom released four years' worth of his tax returns on Friday — as he moves closer to saying whether he'll run for president in 2028.

The high-profile Democrat's IRS filings show that he and spouse Jennifer Siebel Newsom made at least $1.7 million a year from 2021 to 2024, with a high of $4.2 million in 2021, when they sold a Marin County mansion for nearly $6 million, The Associated Press reported.

They paid about $500,000 in federal and state taxes annually except for 2021, when they paid more than $1 million, the AP said.

The couple's 2025 return wasn't made public because they filed for an extension and will submit the forms in October, his office said told the AP.

The disclosures came after Newsom, a fierce critic of President Donald Trump, said in April that he'd wait until after November's midterm elections to decide whether to make a run for the White House in 2028.

They also followed his announcement last month that the Justice Department was investigating him and Siebel Newsom, which he blamed on Trump.

"He’s coming after me because I’m considering running for president, because he hates that I’ve consistently called him out over and over again for his lies and deceit," Newsom said at the time.

Presidential candidates typically release their tax returns after launching their campaigns, with the winners releasing subsequent filings each year they’re in office.

Trump is a notable exception, having initially cited ongoing IRS audits — which don’t prohibit voluntary disclosure — although an IRS contractor leaked parts of some returns and others were made public in late 2022 by then-House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat.

They showed that Trump claimed massive business losses that reduced his tax bills to little or nothing from 2015 to 2020, Politico reported at the time.

Newsom last released his tax returns in 2022, when they were posted on a state website in compliance with a law he signed that applies to gubernatorial candidates, according to Politico.

But on Friday, his office only allowed reporters to view the 718 pages of the latest filings in person and take handwritten notes, according to The New York Times.

The bulk of the couple's income continued to come from Newsom's investments in the wine and hospitality industries, which have been held in blind trust since he became governor, the Times said.

His PlumpJack Group, which operates wineries and restaurants, is being run by his sister and cousin, the AP said.

Newsom has been paid an annual salary of $245,929 since December 1, 2025, according to the California Department of Human Resources.

Siebel Newsom, a film director, reported losing money most years on her company Girls Club Entertainment, which produced the 2011 documentary Miss Representation, about negative media portrayals of women and girls, the AP said.

The couple also reported paying between $14,000 and $44,000 a year for childcare for three of their four children, and making charitable contributions of $40,000 to $65,000 a year, mostly through monetary donations, the AP said.

In 2022, they gave an Oakland-based racial justice organization Armani businesswear they bought for $45,000.

Newsom was barred from seeking reelection by term limits, with Democrat Xavier Becerra, a former state attorney general and U.S. health secretary, and Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host and adviser to then-British Prime Minister David Cameron, vying to succeed him.