President Joe Biden has repeatedly said none of his tax hike proposals will affect anyone earning less than $400,000 a year.

But it turns out that often-repeated promise comes with an asterisk. As Axios’ Hans Nichols reported: “…Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on Americans who make less than $400,000 only applies to individuals — not married couples filing jointly.”

That’s quite a change:

The declaration means a hypothetical couple, with each spouse making $399,999, would not escape the tax increase even though they individually earn less than $400,000.

Their combined income would be $799,998, which the White House believes is sufficient to help underwrite the expanded social safety net the president is proposing.

Driving the news: Biden plans to raise the top tax rate to from 37% to 39.6% for families with taxable income above $509,300, and for individuals above $452,700, to help fund his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, the official said.

That $509,300 limit means that two married individuals, who each have a taxable income exceeding $255,000, would see the portion of their earnings above that figure taxed at the highest rate.

In other words, it means more work for accounts, who will be preparing more “married filing separately” tax returns.

It also means (surprise!) Joe Biden has been fibbing about his plans all along:

“Nobody making under 400,000 bucks would have their taxes raised, period, bingo,” Candidate Biden told CNBC in May.