US President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported $1.7 million in adjusted gross income last year and paid $453,770 in federal income taxes, according to tax returns released yesterday by the White House.
The Obamas’ adjusted gross income for 2010 dropped about 69 percent from the previous year, when it was $5.5 million, and 2010 was the couple’s lowest-earning year since 2006, before Obama’s presidential campaign generated interest in books he wrote. Their total federal income tax liability for 2010 dropped about 75 per cent from 2009, when it was $1.8 million.
A White House blog post from press secretary Jay Carney said “the vast majority of the family’s income is the proceeds from the sale of the president’s books.” In November 2010, Obama released Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, a children’s book. He is also the author of a memoir, Dreams from My Father, and The Audacity of Hope, which outlines his political philosophy.
The Obamas reported $1.3 million in taxable income after deductions. Obama earned his $400,000 presidential salary plus almost $1.4 million in income associated with his books.
The Obamas paid the top marginal tax rate of 35 per cent on most of their income, and they would pay more if Congress passes the president’s tax policies. Obama supports allowing the top rate to return to 39.6 per cent in 2013, when lower rates enacted in 2001 and 2003 are set to expire. Last week, he announced his support for curbing deductions by high earners among ways to raise an additional $1 trillion of tax revenue over the next 12 years.
On Charity
In 2010, Obamas donated $245,075 to charities, or 14.2 per cent of their adjusted gross income. That’s less than the $329,100 they gave in 2009, when charitable contributions made up six per cent of their income. In 2009, the Obamas also donated the entire $1.4 million that the president received for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, which wasn’t counted as taxable income.
The largest single donation of $131,075 in 2010 went to Fisher House Foundation Inc, which provides lodging for military families near large military hospitals and hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The president is donating proceeds from Obama’s children’s book to a Fisher House scholarship fund for children of military personnel who were killed or became disabled through active military service.
