Biden lies again: there are not 1,000 billionaires who only pay 8% in taxes

Joe Biden lied again. The president claimed during his speech during the Democratic Convention that there are at least 1,000 billionaires in the country who pay only 8% in taxes. That statement is not correct.

According to Forbes magazine, there are 813 billionaires in the United States, a figure that is far from the one stated by the president. In addition, as PolitiFact was able to verify, billionaires pay much more in taxes than Biden claimed.

"Today, the richest Americans pay an effective tax rate of more than 20% on the income the government counts under the current tax code," PoliFact explained.

In that regard, PoliFact noted that the 8% figure Biden refers to compares their tax payments to an amount that includes income that is not currently taxable by law. "This makes it a theoretical figure, not something anyone is supposed to pay under the law," the organization highlighted.

But this is not the first time the president has made that claim. The Democrat has referred to this data at least three times, despite its inaccuracy. Just this week, during an event in Maryland, Biden made similar comments: "You know, we have a thousand billionaires in America. You know what their average tax they pay is? 8.2 percent," the president remarked.

In another speech back in January he also referred to that same inaccurate information.

Biden's comments were contradicted even by media outlets that usually back him. CNN noted that "Biden used this figure in a way that was misleading. As in previous remarks, including his State of the Union address in March, Biden didn’t explain that the figure is the product of an alternative calculation, from economists in his own administration, that factors in unrealized capital gains that are not treated as taxable income under federal law."