Obama and Biden's tax returns

deepblue · Apr 16, 2009

Obama is doing ok for himself, Biden continue to be a major cheapskate when comes to charities, especially compare to his boss.

Both pay quite a bit in mortgage interest, look for Obama to pay off his house this year or next. Seems like Obama is just beginning to turn his income into wealth, even reported a short term cap gain for 2008. The Bidens? not so much.

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Obamas Paid $855,323 in Federal Tax on $2.66 Million (Update1)

By Hans Nichols and Ryan J. Donmoyer

April 15 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama paid $855,323 in federal taxes for 2008 on an adjusted gross income of $2.66 million, according to copies of his tax returns released by the administration.

The couple reported a total income of $2.73 million. The majority of their earnings, almost $2.5 million, came from proceeds on sales from the president’s books, “Dreams from My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope.”

The Obamas reported giving $172,050 to 37 charities, or about 6.5 percent of their adjusted gross income, according to a summary provided with their tax documents.

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, paid $46,952 in federal taxes for 2008 on $269,256 in adjusted gross income. They also paid $1,827 in alternative minimum tax, a levy the Obamas avoided because their income was too high.

Obama and his wife paid $77,883 in income taxes to their home state of Illinois in 2008 and $22,233 in property taxes on their Chicago home. The Bidens paid $11,164 in Delaware state income tax.

Decline from 2007

The first family’s income declined from 2007, when they earned $4.2 million, with $4 million coming from book royalties. That was more than they earned in the previous seven years combined.

That year, the Obamas opened a retirement account that will shelter some of his book income from tax. They deposited $45,000 into a self-employed individual retirement account, the maximum allowed; in 2008, they again contributed the maximum, which was $46,000 for that year.

In all, the Obamas claimed $301,519 in itemized deductions for 2008, including their charitable gifts, state income and property taxes, and $54,323 in mortgage interest. Their deductions were limited by their high income.

The biggest recipients of the Obamas’ charitable donations were the anti-poverty group CARE and the United Negro College Fund, which each received $25,000. The Obamas gave $5,000 each to 22 other organizations, among them the United Way of Galveston, Texas, and Columbia University.

Investment Income

Their tax returns showed growing investment income. After reporting zero dividends in 2007 they reported $34,549 for 2008, of which $7,991 qualified for the preferred 15 percent rate Obama has proposed increasing that rate to 20 percent in 2011. The Obamas also reported $1,107 in short-term capital gains for 2008 after carrying forward $3,000 in losses in 2007.

Obama has proposed allowing Clinton-era income tax rates of 36 percent and 39.6 percent to be reinstated in 2011, along with the 20 percent rate on long-term capital gains. If those income- tax rates had been in effect for 2008, the Obamas would have faced $102,000 in additional taxes, based on information in his return.

“We need to end the tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans, so that folks like me are paying the same rates that the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans paid when Bill Clinton was president,” Obama, 47, said in a speech on taxes today, the deadline for Americans to file their returns with the Internal Revenue Service.

Separately, the Obamas filed returns to reflect a $12,000 gift to each of their daughters, Malia and Sasha. That money that is exempt from income taxes in 2008.

The Bidens’ income came from his Senate salary of $165,526 and her $67,840 pay from Delaware Technical & Community College. He also received $20,500 from Widener University. Biden, 66, also reported $6,534 in Social Security benefits and $9,563 in royalties from his book, “Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.”

Deductions

The Bidens claimed $61,617 in itemized deductions, including $23,561 in state income and property taxes, $37,264 of mortgage interest paid, and $1,885 in charitable gifts, which included clothing donated to Goodwill Industries in March and May of last year they valued at $550 using thrift-store values.

Biden was the least wealthy senator, according to an analysis of financial disclosure reports by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington research group. Still, he was criticized during the campaign last year for giving an average of $369 a year to charity over the past decade while earning a six-figure income.

The vice president’s office today said that “the charitable donations claimed by the Bidens on their tax returns are not the sum of their annual contributions to charity,” and said the couple also donates to their church and gives their time, which isn’t deductible, to charities.

The Obamas stepped up their charitable giving after he became a millionaire author and was elected to public office. In March 2008, Obama released a decade’s worth of tax returns that showed that from 2000-2004 the couple donated less than 1 percent per year of their income in those years to charities. Since 2005, they have given between 5 percent and 6.5 percent of their income to charity, more than the national average.
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DFWRocket · Apr 17, 2009

deepblue said:

Obama is doing ok for himself, Biden continue to be a major cheapskate when comes to charities, especially compare to his boss.
Click to expand...

Biden was the least wealthy senator, according to an analysis of financial disclosure reports by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington research group. Still, he was criticized during the campaign last year for giving an average of $369 a year to charity over the past decade while earning a six-figure income.

Wow! Up until last year when Biden gave almost 2K...We gave more a year than Biden did...thats sad because our Household take-home pay is about 1/4 of his.

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Obama and Biden's tax returns

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