SACRAMENTO — Newly released tax returns show Gov. Gavin Newsom and first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom have consistently reported about $1.2 million to $1.6 million in taxable income since Newsom became governor, except for a spike in 2021.
That year, the couple reported $3.5 million in income, including a $763,000 profit from the sale of their Kentfield house for nearly $5.9 million. Newsom’s wine businesses, which are in a blind trust, and other investments also yielded higher returns for the couple than usual that year.
Newsom’s office made his 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 tax returns available to reporters Thursday — the first time in years his office has done so after committing in 2018 to release his returns every year. Reporters were able to view the 718 pages of returns in person in the governor’s offices in Sacramento. They were permitted to take only handwritten notes on the documents and were prohibited from photographing or removing them from the office.
The couple’s 2025 taxes are not yet available because they filed for an extension.
Newsom’s release of the returns comes as he and his wife are under federal investigation. The federal Department of Justice has declined to comment on the investigation, but a source close to the matter has said Siebel Newsom’s taxes are a target. Newsom has said he and his wife have done nothing wrong and harshly criticized the investigation, characterizing it as a political attack by President Donald Trump.
The two file their taxes jointly as a married couple. The federal probe also appears related to Siebel Newsom’s nonprofits and business. She has not made public tax returns for those entities, but the couple’s tax returns provide some insight into their finances.
The Newsoms reported $1.6 million in income in 2022 and about $1.4 million in 2023 and 2024. Each year, most of their income came from investments, including Newsom’s wine and hospitality businesses. Newsom placed those businesses in a blind trust when he became governor and is not involved in their day-to-day operation.
Newsom also reported his pay as governor each year, which has increased from $167,647 in 2021 to $192,087 in 2024.
He also reported income from book sales. He published his first book, “Citizenville,” in 2013 and a children’s book inspired by his struggle with dyslexia in 2021. He reported about $165,000 in income, which came out to $75,000 in profits after related expenses, from his work as an author from 2021 to 2024. His latest book, a memoir, was released this year.
Siebel Newsom reported income for her work as a filmmaker, including about $150,000 each year in wages from the Representation Project, the nonprofit she runs that finances her documentary work. In 2021, she also reported $100,000 in wages from Girls Club Entertainment, her documentary production company, which dropped to $11,700 in 2022. Girls Club Entertainment reported losing money all four years. Siebel Newsom directed four documentaries released from 2011 to 2022. Her latest documentary, “Miss Representation: Rise Up,” about the effect of technology on women and girls, premiered this year.
The couple reported an average of roughly $50,000 per year in charitable giving from 2021 to 2024. They reported donating clothes, toys and household goods to thrift stores in Sacramento and the Bay Area, and $45,000 of “Armani business wear” to the organization Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth in 2022.
The couple paid about $1.4 million in state and federal income taxes in 2021, $760,000 in 2022, $523,000 in 2023 and $570,000 in 2024.