16 April 2009
The President’s Tax Returns
The 1040 forms for both President Obama and Vice-President Biden have been made public. Sorry identity theives, but they have whited/blacked out home addresses and social security numbers. You can download them via the following links:
Click here for the full announcment with state forms as well
Things to note:
I wonder how easy it is for a president to relate to the “common man” when the interest payments on his housing ($54,323) is higher than the average salary of an American.
The announcement included bragging about the Obama’s charitable donations of $172,050, which is approximately 6.5% of their adjusted gross income. Not bad, but as a Christian, I’d be more encouraged to see an amount over 10% of gross income.
Their federal income tax bill came out to 855,323. Ouch. How’s that feel, Mr. Obama! Tax the rich!
Now on to Mr. and Mrs. Biden. His is much more entertaining
The poor Bidens only made $269,256 last year. Thankfully they were able to itemize deductions of $61,617, which included over $37,000 in mortgage interest payments. That’s pretty rough for someone who only makes $270k and has to pay over $47k in federal taxes alone.
It’s good to know that they had $1,885 left to give to charity. For some reason, the announcement didn’t tell us what percentage of income that is. Let me do the math for you (1,885 / 269,256 = .7%). Yes, that is point seven, almost one whole percent. The announcement clears up the discrepency though:
“The charitable donations claimed by the Bidens on their tax returns are not the sum of their annual contributions to charity. They donate to their church, and they contribute to their favorite causes with their time, as well as their checkbooks.”
Yes, and you can deduct contributions to church and other favorite causes, so I’m guessing that it means they donated almost $2,000 and a few hours. Nicely smoothed over.
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2 Comments currently posted.
Ken Lanning says:
Devin Rose says:
I. Am. So. Shocked. And by that, of course, I mean that this information, in no way, is surprising. Does any politician put their money where their mouths are??
Generally I wouldn’t criticize someone’s charitable giving, but our President and Vice President are so sanctimonious. Honestly, for all his talk about the rest of us giving and making sacrifices, I’m surprised Mr. Obama’s giving isn’t up around 90%.