Boston Mayor Michelle Wu releases tax forms, Josh Kraft yet to disclose his

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu banked more than $184,000 last year, nearly all of which came from her $207,000 mayoral salary, according to the 2024 tax return she released this week through her campaign.

Wu made $184,241 in federal adjusted gross income last year, benefitting from a number of tax breaks that came from filing jointly with her husband, receiving tax credits for two of her young children, and holding nearly half a million dollars in investment accounts as part of a married couple, per her tax form and a financial breakdown provided by her campaign.

The mayor said she was releasing her tax form in the spirit of democratic transparency. Her financial forms were released to the Herald on the condition that they not be published.

“I’ve provided a full and complete accounting of my family’s financial interests, and I expect my fellow candidates will honor our democratic process and be just as transparent,” Wu said in a statement to the Herald.

Wu is paid a $207,000 annual salary as mayor. She reported $6,558 in additional income last year, per her tax form, which was previously reported by the Boston Globe. Her campaign said that additional income came from Wu reselling her Boston Celtics season tickets to various games in 2024.

The mayor received $4,000 in child tax credits for her two young sons, who were claimed as dependents on her 2024 tax form, and benefited from an $8,800 personal exemption for filing jointly with her husband, Conor Pewarski. The couple’s third child was born this past January.

Those filing as married, but separately from their spouse, receive a personal exemption of $4,400, the same exemption as a single filer, per the state website.

Pewarski is unemployed, and thus, the only income reported in their joint filing was from the mayor. Wu’s husband is a former banker who has been a stay-at-home father since she became mayor in the fall of 2021.

Wu also provided her financial disclosure form for 2024, filed with City Hall in the past week, which lists investments and debt held by the mayor and her husband.

Their investments are held in an individual retirement account, commonly referred to by the IRA initialism, and 529 college savings accounts. The aggregate value of those accounts is roughly $450,000, per the Wu campaign.

A majority of the mayor’s retirement account is invested in either S&P 500 or Nasdaq 100 index funds, while 529 funds are managed by Fidelity.

The mayor owes roughly $17,000 in student loans to the Department of Education.

Wu and her husband owe $447,000 of a $552,000 mortgage from Rockland Trust on their two-family Roslindale home. The loan is fully amortizing at a 3.125% interest rate and matures in 2046, per her financial disclosure.

The couple owns no other real estate besides their personal home in Boston, nor are they trustees or beneficiaries of any trusts of any nature, Wu’s campaign said.

Wu and her husband lease a 2025 Honda Prologue from Parkway Honda in West Roxbury. The lease expires in 2027, her campaign said.

Though the statement she released alongside her tax form did not mention him by name, Wu has criticized Josh Kraft, seen as her principal opponent, for what she sees as his wealthy family’s attempt to buy him the mayoral election.

Kraft, a son of the billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and longtime philanthropist, has thus far declined to provide his tax forms.

Eileen O’Connor, a spokesperson for the Kraft campaign, said the campaign would not be releasing his tax documents this week.

“Josh Kraft intends to release information related to his tax returns in the near future,” O’Connor said in a statement to the Herald.

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Kraft recently dipped into his personal bank account to put $2 million into his campaign, telling reporters after last Wednesday’s mayoral forum that he needed to do so, given that he is “going against the power of incumbency.” He said he has had just four months to fundraise, while Wu “has had four years to raise money.”

Before departing his role as head of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, Kraft drew a roughly $350,000 salary in fiscal year 2020. He was not paid a salary in recent years as head of the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation, his family’s philanthropic arm, according to publicly available 990 forms.

His father, Robert Kraft, chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group, has a net worth of $11.8 billion.

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