Tax summaries show Pritzkers made $5 million last year – not including family trusts

[October 16, 2021]  By JERRY NOWICKI
Capitol News Illinois
[e-mail]

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker’s campaign released summary documents of his 2020 tax returns Friday, which showed the first family reporting $5.14 million in adjusted gross income, all from taxable interest and dividends.

The campaign released seven pages summarizing the governor’s and first lady MK Pritzker’s returns, which were prepared by Deloitte Tax LLP. It did not release tax returns from trusts benefitting Illinois’ first family, stating in an email only the amount the trusts paid in taxes.

“According to the information provided by the trustees, in 2020, trusts benefitting JB Pritzker paid $16.3 million in Illinois taxes and $69.6 million in federal taxes,” the campaign said in an email.

The Pritzkers claimed $2.86 million in standard and itemized deductions, according to their federal 1040 form, although the campaign did not release the Schedule A form outlining the breakdown of those deductions. The campaign did say in an email the Pritzkers made $2.8 million in personal charitable donations last year.

Other deductions that can be claimed on a Schedule A form include medical and dental expenses, state and local real estate and personal property taxes, mortgage interest paid, casualty and theft losses and more.

A campaign spokesperson said it would not be releasing the full Schedule A form or any information other than the summaries but did not give a reason why. The spokesperson said the summaries are what the governor has always released since he launched his first-term candidacy.

Gov. JB Pritzker is pictured in his Capitol office in 2019 during a news conference promoting the graduated income tax, which voters rejected last year. His campaign released his 2020 income taxes Friday. (Capitol News Illinois file photo)

The Pritzkers also claimed $83,681 in qualified business income deductions, although the campaign did not release the full 8995 form which outlines those deductions. The tax return summary document also showed the Pritzkers claimed a $142,046 foreign tax credit, although it did not include any corresponding documentation.

That made for a federal taxable income of $2.2 million, on which the Pritzkers paid $529,104 in total federal taxes, according to the partial returns. The Pritzkers paid $230,643 in Illinois taxes at the state’s flat 4.95 percent rate. That was after a $21,702 deduction for income taxes paid in another state.

Forbes estimates Pritzker, who is heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, to have a net worth of $3.6 billion.

The $5.14 million in total income is up from the previous year, but far below the Pritzkers’ 2017 reported pre-governorship income of approximately $55 million, as reported by the Associated Press at the time.

In 2019, the Pritzkers reported $2.57 million in total income and $1.42 million in taxable income federally. In 2018, the family reported more than $6 million in adjusted gross income and $5.5 million in federal taxable income.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.