Gavin Newsom spent years demanding that politicians release their tax returns — and then quietly stopped releasing his own.
Now, with a Department of Justice investigation reportedly circling his family’s finances and a 2028 presidential run on the horizon, the California Governor finally handed over the paperwork.
And what those 700-plus pages pulled back the curtain on is exactly the kind of lifestyle Newsom lectures everyone else about affording.
The Man Who Preached Transparency Sat on His Returns for Four Years
Upon his election as governor in 2018, Newsom promised to release his full tax returns each year, but did not hold to that promise — in 2021 and 2022 he released tax returns for tax years 2017 through 2020 to comply with California law for gubernatorial candidates, but released nothing after that.
Newsom’s office released the tax filings following weeks of questions over why he had stopped publicly releasing his returns after 2020, despite repeatedly promising to disclose them annually while serving as governor.
That’s a four-year gap from a man who once signed legislation trying to force Donald Trump off the California ballot for not releasing his returns. The California Supreme Court ultimately struck that law down as unconstitutional, but the irony here is hard to miss.
The disclosures cover four years’ worth of tax returns and come as Newsom is likely to mount a 2028 presidential campaign and the Department of Justice has reportedly launched an investigation against the couple.
The US Department of Justice is investigating the finances of First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, according to two sources familiar with the investigation. The probe focuses on Siebel Newsom’s taxes and nonprofits connected to her and Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to a federal source and a source within Siebel Newsom’s office who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Newsom has denied wrongdoing and said Trump is “coming after me because I am considering running for President,” portraying the investigation as politically motivated and unprecedented. His office has not explained why the returns were withheld for years before any investigation became public.
Nearly $200,000 for Household Staff While California Burns
Newsom released more than 700 pages of tax returns from 2021 through 2024, showing that his family paid nearly $200,000 for household staff in the last year. In addition to that figure, the Newsoms spent between $14,000 and $44,000 a year on childcare for three of their four children, according to tax returns reviewed by the New York Times and the Associated Press.
That is a lot of household help for a governor who presided over the highest cost-of-living crisis in California history, where working families routinely flee the state because they cannot afford rent, groceries, or gas.
The couple continued to spend around $190,000 a year for household employees, which includes childcare costs. For the years covered by those tax returns, the Newsoms also carried a $13,000-per-month mortgage on their estate in Fair Oaks.
Newsom and his wife maintained consistent annual earnings between $1.7 million and $2 million from 2022 through 2024, paying approximately $500,000 each year in combined federal and state taxes. While Newsom earns nearly $200,000 annually as governor, most of the family’s income originates from his hospitality empire, The PlumpJack Group, which encompasses wineries and restaurants. Newsom placed these assets into a blind trust upon taking office in 2019, and the enterprise is currently managed by his sister and cousin.
The returns reportedly do not show which individual businesses generated profits or losses. So Californians get 700 pages but still cannot tell which Newsom business made money and which one did not. That is transparency of a very specific, carefully curated kind.
Siebel Newsom’s production company, Girls Club Entertainment, continued to lose money according to the tax returns. The company lost about $37,000 in 2022, while Siebel Newsom reported earning just $11,700 from the business. She also collected $150,000 from her nonprofit, The Representation Project, to promote films and other initiatives about addressing gender stereotypes.
According to reports from multiple outlets invited to view the returns, the Newsoms’ income has not increased since the last time his returns were released, but Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s for-profit company, Girls Club Entertainment, lost money all four years and did not pay her a salary in 2023 or 2024.
And yet the household staff bill stayed right around $190,000 to $200,000 a year throughout. A film company losing money every single year while the household payroll stays fat is a financial picture worth asking questions about.
Property taxes on the $9.1 million Marin County home Jennifer Siebel Newsom purchased through an LLC in November 2024 are not included on the returns, but presumably will be shown on the couple’s 2025 return when they file it in October.
Newsom’s office did not release 2025 tax returns because the couple filed for an extension and expects to complete them in October, the New York Post reported.
What This Looks Like From Where Most Americans Sit
Gavin Newsom has spent the better part of a decade positioning himself as the moral conscience of the Democrat Party — the guy who lectures about inequality, climate, housing, and the responsibilities of the wealthy.
And he does all of that with a staff of household employees that costs nearly as much as most American families earn in a year.
The Newsoms donated between $40,000 and $67,000 to charity each year during the four-year period. On an income of $1.7 to $2 million annually, that works out to roughly two to four percent. Not exactly the standard Newsom sets for others.
The timing of this release tells a story the numbers alone do not. It was the first time Newsom disclosed his returns since 2022. The DOJ investigation became public in June. The returns came out weeks later. Newsom’s office framed the release as a transparency move and took a shot at Donald Trump in the same breath.
But a man who promised annual disclosure and then went dark for four years does not get to claim the transparency high ground just because investigators started knocking on doors.
The numbers are generally in line with what some analysts projected they would be based on a review of his tax returns and financial disclosures from 2010 through 2020, and do not answer questions raised about how the couple can afford the lifestyle they lead.
That last part is the thing. A $9.1 million home purchased through an LLC, a $13,000-per-month mortgage on a separate estate, nearly $200,000 in household staff wages, and a film company that lost money every year for four straight years. The math does not obviously work on $1.7 to $2 million in reported annual income.
Newsom is betting that 700 pages of paper looks like openness. But volume is not the same as clarity, and the returns themselves confirm there are questions here that a document dump does not resolve.
If Newsom runs for President in 2028, every one of these numbers follows him into every debate, every fundraiser, and every speech about what the Democrat Party stands for. A candidate who preached tax transparency, broke his own promise for four years, and released the paperwork only after federal investigators came calling is going to have a hard time selling himself as the honest alternative to anyone.
The returns are out. The questions are not going away.
Sources: Mediaite, Associated Press, New York Times, RedState, SF Standard, Newsweek, Fox 11 Los Angeles, Philadelphia Inquirer, HNGN, Yahoo News
