California Gov. Gavin Newsom ended weeks of stonewalling by releasing four years of tax returns that show the first family earning up to $2 million a year, while writing off Armani suits and subsidizing a production company that keeps losing money.

Newsom's office dropped more than 700 pages of federal income tax filings on Friday, covering tax years that included 2022, 2023, and 2024. The release came only after repeated questions from reporters about why a governor who signed a law forcing candidates to disclose their returns, and who pledged to release his own every year, had gone silent on the subject after tax year 2020.

The filings paint a picture of a family living at a scale far beyond the governor's roughly $200,000 annual salary. The Newsoms reported earning between $1.7 million and $2 million each year from 2022 through 2024. Most of that income flowed from winery, restaurant, and hospitality businesses Newsom placed into a blind trust after taking office. The returns do not identify which individual businesses generated profits or losses.

Over the four-year period, the couple paid nearly $2.8 million in federal income taxes and about $500,000 in California income taxes. Newsom also collected $70,000 in author income in 2023 and $75,000 in 2024, though the California Post noted it remains unclear whether those payments stem from his memoir or other publishing projects.

Nearly $200,000 for household staff, plus Armani write-offs

Among the most striking line items: in 2024, the Newsoms paid nearly $200,000 in wages to household employees, plus employment taxes for domestic workers and babysitters. The couple also spent between $14,000 and $44,000 a year on childcare for three of their four children.

Then there is the wardrobe. In 2022, the Newsoms donated Armani business attire originally purchased for about $45,000 to an Oakland restorative justice nonprofit. On their tax filings, they estimated the clothes' thrift-store value at $4,900. Taxpayers who itemize charitable deductions know the IRS expects fair-market-value estimates on donated goods, and the gap between a $45,000 purchase price and a $4,900 write-off will raise eyebrows in both directions, depending on who is looking.

Charitable giving across the four-year span ranged between $40,000 and $67,000 per year, according to The New York Times. The Associated Press, which also reviewed the returns, put the annual range at $40,000 to $65,000, a minor discrepancy neither outlet has explained.

Siebel Newsom's film company lost money again in 2022

First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom's production company, Girls Club Entertainment, lost approximately $37,000 in 2022. Siebel Newsom reported earning just $11,700 from the business that year. The Associated Press reported that the company lost money "most years", a pattern that raises a basic question about whether the venture functions as a business or a write-off vehicle.

Siebel Newsom also collected $150,000 from The Representation Project, a nonprofit she is associated with, to promote films and other initiatives. The filings do not specify whether that payment covered a single year or multiple years. A source previously told The California Post that one federal inquiry is examining Siebel Newsom's taxes, a detail that adds weight to the disclosure's timing, given the federal probe now shadowing the governor.

Reporters could look but not copy

The governor's office allowed select reporters to view the returns but barred them from making copies, an unusual restriction for a politician who built part of his brand on transparency. Spokesperson Diana Crofts-Pelayo dismissed concerns about the filings' contents.

Crofts-Pelayo told The California Post:

"They're unremarkable and entirely consistent with what Californians already know from his annual Form 700 disclosures."

She added a second statement framing the release as voluntary generosity rather than overdue compliance:

"The governor publicly released his tax returns while he was on the ballot and is happy to go above and beyond by releasing the remaining years as well."

That framing skips over the fact that Newsom himself signed a 2019 law requiring gubernatorial candidates to disclose five years of federal returns before appearing on California's primary ballot. He also pledged to release his returns annually while in office. After tax year 2020, he stopped, and weeks of questions followed before the Friday document dump.

When The California Post asked Newsom earlier this month about the newer returns, the governor seemed surprised they had not already been made public. "I know you love taxes," he said. "And you will have all those new tax returns, because, I have no reason why you haven't gotten them already." Spokesperson Izzy Gardon confirmed Thursday that the filings would come Friday.

Dana Williamson's guilty plea hangs over the governor's orbit

The returns land at a moment when the legal ground around Newsom is shifting. His former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, filing a false tax return, and lying to the FBI. Williamson is scheduled to be sentenced September 17. Federal investigators had separately investigated Williamson before the plea.

That case sits alongside a broader federal investigation the Newsoms themselves disclosed last month. The governor and first partner acknowledged they are subjects of a federal inquiry. Newsom has called the probe politically motivated, accusing the Trump administration of weaponizing the Justice Department against a likely 2028 presidential contender. Reporting has shown, however, that the FBI's interest in the governor's circle extends well beyond partisan timing.

Newsom's 2028 ambitions are no secret. He has positioned himself as a leading Democratic contender even as his personal and political baggage grows. His office recently brushed off an ex-affair partner's tell-all while polling shows him in a competitive lane alongside other Democrats jockeying for the nomination.

Tax year 2025 still missing

One year remains conspicuously absent. The Newsoms did not release their 2025 returns, citing a filed extension. The governor's office says it expects to complete those returns in October. For a governor who promised annual transparency and then went dark for years, asking the public to wait a few more months is a familiar move.

The filings that did come out confirm what critics have long suspected: the Newsoms live on a financial plane that has little in common with the median California household. A $200,000 governor's salary is a fraction of their income. Nearly $200,000 more goes to household staff alone. Armani suits get donated and written off. A production company bleeds money year after year. And a nonprofit connected to the first partner pays her $150,000.

None of that is necessarily illegal. But for a governor under federal investigation, whose former chief of staff just pleaded guilty to fraud and lying to the FBI, "unremarkable" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The 2028 Democratic primary field will have questions of its own.

Transparency delayed is transparency managed. Newsom kept these returns in a drawer until the political cost of silence outweighed the cost of disclosure, and even then, reporters could look but not copy. Californians deserve better from a governor who wrote the transparency rules himself.