--- title: Democratic Debate: Sanders Pledges to Release Tax Returns description: Sanders insists his wife, Jane, handles their taxes canonical: https://time.com/4295446/bernie-sanders-tax-returns-jane-sanders/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-15T01:52:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:50:06.105Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bernie Sanders Promises to Release Tax Returns Soon og:description: He blamed his wife, Jane, for the delay. og:url: https://time.com/4295446/bernie-sanders-tax-returns-jane-sanders/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c6811d1fb0e5956/69888f3dcd1bbaf600700444/democratic_debate_c.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4608 og:image:height: 2592 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL Hillary Clinton And Bernie Sanders Spar At Democratic Debate In Brooklyn og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bernie Sanders Promises to Release Tax Returns Soon twitter:description: He blamed his wife, Jane, for the delay. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c6811d1fb0e5956/69888f3dcd1bbaf600700444/democratic_debate_c.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bernie Sanders Promises to Release Tax Returns Soon > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ca55c022-535e-42ef-a918-eb95df032767&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: CNN Democratic Debate: Clinton Gets Defensive Over Tax Returns [Watch (HLS stream): CNN Democratic Debate: Clinton Gets Defensive Over Tax Returns](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PbUcnTd5.m3u8) (1:28)  _Published 2016-04-15_ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 15, 2016 1:52 AM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 15, 2016 1:52 AM UTC Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pledged to make his tax returns public soon at a Democratic debate Thursday night. “We’ll get our tax returns out. We’ve been busy; you might have noticed,” Sanders said Thursday. Sanders has insisted, and reiterated on Thursday, that his wife Jane is responsible for the taxes in their household. The Vermont Senator, whose campaign has hinged on his promise to curb on corporate creed, also said Thursday he is one of the “poorer” members of the Senate and therefore his tax returns will not say much. A [ranking of the wealth of members of Congress](http://media.cq.com/50Richest/) based on official disclosure forms in October by the Washington-based newspaper Roll Call [placed Sanders as No. 340](http://www.rollcall.com/politics/senators-running-president-trail-congressional-colleagues-net-worth/), with a minimum net worth of $163,000: --- > “” --- The Senator has repeatedly dodged the release of his returns. In a recent interview, Jane said that the couple had released their full returns for the past several years. A fact check from the Washington _Post_ [found that statement to be untrue. ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/04/12/recidivism-watch-jane-sanders-repeats-bernie-sanderss-four-pinocchio-claim-that-they-released-full-tax-returns/) The topic of Sanders’ tax returns came up Thursday after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was pressed about releasing the transcripts from high paid speeches she delivered to major financial institutions. ## Transcript Secretary Clinton. The question was about the transcripts of the speeches to Goldman Sachs. Why not release them? I have said, look, there are certain expectations when you run for president. This is a new one, and I've said, if everybody agrees to do it, cuz there are speeches for money on the other side. I know that. [ INAUDIBLE ] But I'll tell you this, there is, there's a long standing expectation that everybody running release their tax returns and you can go, you can go to my website, I ain't seen 8 years of tax returns. And I've released 30 years of tax returns. And I think every candidate, including Senator Sanders and Donald Trump should do the same. Secretary Clinton, you just heard her. Everybody else starts that she'll do it. I will do it. [ APPLAUSE ] I am going Going to release all of the transcripts of the speeches that I gave on Wall Street behind closed doors. [ APPLAUSE ] Not for $ 225, 000, not for $ 2, 000, not for $ 0. 02. There were no speeches. [ APPLAUSE ] And second of all of course, we will release Our taxes. Jane does our taxes we have been a little bit busy lately if you'll excuse us. [ APPLAUSE ] But we will, Senator we will get about ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4295446/bernie-sanders-tax-returns-jane-sanders/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4295446/bernie-sanders-tax-returns-jane-sanders/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders Promises to Release Tax Returns Soon","datePublished":"2016-04-15T01:52:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:50:06.105Z","description":"Sanders insists his wife, Jane, handles their taxes","url":"https://time.com/4295446/bernie-sanders-tax-returns-jane-sanders/","keywords":["Debates","2016 Election","Taxes","Bernie Sanders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c6811d1fb0e5956/69888f3dcd1bbaf600700444/democratic_debate_c.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c6811d1fb0e5956/69888f3dcd1bbaf600700444/democratic_debate_c.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL Hillary Clinton And Bernie Sanders Spar At Democratic Debate In Brooklyn","caption":"Hillary Clinton And Bernie Sanders Spar At Democratic Debate In Brooklyn","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4295446/bernie-sanders-tax-returns-jane-sanders/","name":"Bernie Sanders Promises to Release Tax Returns Soon"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"CNN Democratic Debate: Clinton Gets Defensive Over Tax Returns","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PbUcnTd5/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-04-15T01:47:28.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PbUcnTd5.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4295446/bernie-sanders-tax-returns-jane-sanders/","duration":"PT1M28S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4295446/bernie-sanders-tax-returns-jane-sanders/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```