---
title: "Newsom's tax returns show 1.7 to 2 million a year and most of it is not the salary"
description: "Gov. Gavin Newsom released four years of tax returns on Friday. They show a household earning between $1.7 million and $2 million a year from 2022 through 2024, paying about half a million a year in federal and state tax, and drawing the great majority of that income from the wine and restaurant businesses he put in a blind trust, not from the roughly $200,000 the state pays him."
category: "California"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/california
author: "Elias Rosen"
published: 2026-08-01T04:51:15.000Z
updated: 2026-08-01T04:51:15.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/newsom-s-tax-returns-show-1-7-to-2-million-a-year-and-most-of-it-is-not-the-sala
tags: ["gavin-newsom", "taxes", "california-governor", "disclosure", "plumpjack"]
---
# Newsom's tax returns show 1.7 to 2 million a year and most of it is not the salary

Gov. Gavin Newsom released four years of tax returns on Friday. They show a household earning between $1.7 million and $2 million a year from 2022 through 2024, paying about half a million a year in federal and state tax, and drawing the great majority of that income from the wine and restaurant businesses he put in a blind trust, not from the roughly $200,000 the state pays him.

Gov. Gavin Newsom released four years of personal tax returns on Friday, covering 2021 through 2024. They are the first tax records he has made public since 2022, [The San Francisco Standard reported](https://sfstandard.com/2026/07/31/governor-gavin-newsom-taxes-president-donald-trump/).

For each of the three most recent years, the picture is consistent. Newsom and his wife, the filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, reported household income between $1.7 million and $2 million a year, with 2022 at roughly $2 million, [ABC7 reported](https://abc7news.com/post/tax-returns-show-california-governor-gavin-newsom-earning-between-17-million-2-annually/19609620/).

## Where the money comes from

Almost none of it is the job. The governor's salary runs close to $200,000; in 2024 it was $192,000, [according to the Standard](https://sfstandard.com/2026/07/31/governor-gavin-newsom-taxes-president-donald-trump/), while Siebel Newsom reported $148,000 and the couple took in more than $1 million from investments that year.

The bulk of the household's income comes from the winery and restaurant businesses Newsom built before entering statewide office and placed in a blind trust when he became governor, ABC7 reported. Siebel Newsom's production company, Girls Club Entertainment, lost money in most of the years covered.

## Tax and giving

The couple paid roughly half a million dollars a year in combined federal and state taxes across 2022, 2023 and 2024, and more than $1 million in 2021, ABC7 reported. Charitable donations ran between $40,000 and $65,000 a year, mostly cash. In 2022 they also gave away about $45,000 worth of Armani business wear to nonprofits.

The two published accounts of 2021 differ, and we are not reconciling them here: ABC7 describes an unusually large tax bill that year, while the Standard reports that Newsom earned $1 million in 2021 following a real estate transaction. What both agree on is that 2021 was not a normal year.

The 2025 returns are not in the release. The couple filed for an extension and expects to complete them in October, ABC7 reported.

## Why now

Newsom is in his final stretch as governor, and the release lands against two backdrops. One is a Justice Department inquiry: the Standard reports that the department has launched an investigation into the couple's finances, without detailing its scope. The other is national politics, with Newsom widely discussed as a 2028 presidential candidate.

His office presented the disclosure as a matter of record rather than a response to anything. "Governor Newsom is the first Governor in California history to publicly release tax returns covering his tenure," a spokesperson said, [per the Standard](https://sfstandard.com/2026/07/31/governor-gavin-newsom-taxes-president-donald-trump/), which reported that the release is intended to blunt Republican claims that he has used the office to enrich himself.

Nothing in the returns as reported shows wrongdoing. What they show is the shape of the household's finances: a wealthy family whose money comes overwhelmingly from businesses the governor does not manage, and a public salary that is a rounding error against it.

## Sources

- [Tax returns show Gov. Gavin Newsom earning between $1.7 million and $2 million annually](https://abc7news.com/post/tax-returns-show-california-governor-gavin-newsom-earning-between-17-million-2-annually/19609620/)
- [Newsom releases tax returns amid a Trump-era Justice Department inquiry](https://sfstandard.com/2026/07/31/governor-gavin-newsom-taxes-president-donald-trump/)