Presidential Salary and Giving

[Sam]

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, made $5.5 million last year, largely on sales of his books, and paid nearly $1.8 million in federal income tax, according to the tax return they released Thursday.

The Obamas gave $329,000 to charities in 2009, including $50,000 each to CARE and the United Negro College Fund. The president also donated his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize award to 10 charities.

The vast majority of the Obamas' earnings continue to come from sales of the president's books, "Dreams From My Father," and "The Audacity of Hope," which have netted the couple several million dollars in recent years.

The Obamas paid $163,303 in Illinois income taxes.

In 2008, when Obama was campaigning for president, he and his wife earned $2.7 million and paid $855,323 in federal income tax.

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, reported an adjusted gross income of $333,182 for 2009. They paid $71,147 in federal income taxes, $12,420 in Delaware income taxes and $1,477 in Virginia income taxes.

The Bidens gave $4,820 to charity, in cash and in-kind donations.

[MissBrattified]

Good for the Obamas for upping the amount, although I suspect it had to do with their political aspirations more than anything else. The Biden figure is disappointing. Being generous to charities (including to a local church or community center) is indicative of good character, and I tend to believe the inverse is also true. 1% is better than nothing, I suppose.

"Up until recent years when their income increased sharply from book revenues and a Senate salary, Obama's family donated a relatively minor amount of its earnings to charity. From 2000 through 2004, the senator and his wife never gave more than $3,500 a year in charitable donations -- about 1 percent of their annual earnings. In 2005, however, that total jumped to $77,315 (4.7 percent of annual earnings), and to $60,307 in 2006 (6.1 percent)." --Huffington Post

[seguidordejesus]

Maybe they just give anonymously. Some of us like it that way.

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by seguidordejesus

Maybe they just give anonymously. Some of us like it that way.

The information is based off of publicized tax returns. Do you report charitable giving on your tax return? Our giving is private as well, generally speaking, but we still report it to the I.R.S.

Plus, I would assume if they're going to report a few thousand, it's obvious that they aren't opposed to reporting their charitable giving--and that's probably the maximum amount they could legitimately claim.

[seguidordejesus]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

The information is based off of publicized tax returns. Do you report charitable giving on your tax return? Our giving is private as well, generally speaking, but we still report it to the I.R.S.

Plus, I would assume if they're going to report a few thousand, it's obvious that they aren't opposed to reporting their charitable giving--and that's probably the maximum amount they could legitimately claim.

Well, my statement was a bit tongue in cheek I only report charitable giving if it makes my refund bigger

[Praxeas]

since you can only take either the standard deduction or contributions, not both, I don't report my giving either :-)

[seguidordejesus]

If my giving was more than the standard deduction I would but I'm not there yet