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US PRESIDENT BARACK Obama and Michelle Obama paid $98,169 in taxes on $481,098 income last year, tax returns the White House released today show.
The figure is the approximate equivalent of paying €70,693 in tax on an income of €346,450.
They paid an effective income tax rate of 20.4 per cent and donated significantly less to charity than they did the year before.
The 42-page document, which included the couple’s Illinois state income tax return as well as their federal return, shows the Obamas reported donating $59,251 to 32 charities, which helped lower their overall tax bill. The nearly $60,000 in donations represents 12.3 per cent of their adjusted gross income.
But their charitable giving was down sharply from 2012, when the president and first lady reported giving away $150,034.
Their largest charitable gift last year, $8,751, went to the Fisher House Foundation, which supports military families. The Obamas gave the foundation $103,871 in 2012.
The joint tax returns, which the Obamas signed on Tuesday, were posted on the White House website on Friday, four days before the April 15 income tax filing deadline.
Income from the sale of Obama’s best-selling books also declined significantly since 2012.
Obama received $31,139 from Random House and $85,041 from Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, for a total of $116,180 in book sales. That combined total compares with $273,739 in similar payments he received in 2012. There was a big drop in the amount from Random House, which paid Obama $162,789 in 2012.
Overall, the Obamas had total tax payments of $117,277. They were entitled to a refund of $19,108, but applied it toward their 2014 tax bill instead of pocketing the money.
They also paid an extra $9,513 in alternative minimum tax.
Income
Obama’s annual salary as president is $400,000, which was the main source of the family’s income last year.
Itemised deductions totaling $147,769 helped reduce the Obamas’ taxable income. Along with their charitable contributions, the Obamas deducted $42,383 in mortgage interest on the home they own in Chicago.
Among the Obamas’ other notable charitable contributions were $5,000 to the Sidwell Friends School, the exclusive private school where daughters Malia and Sasha are enrolled, $4,000 to the American Red Cross and $2,000 to One Fund Boston, which was created last year to aid victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.
The Obamas’ Illinois income tax return showed them paying $23,328 in income taxes to their home state.
Vice President
The White House also released tax returns for Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill.
The Bidens paid $96,378 in federal taxes last year on adjusted gross income of $407,009. They paid an effective federal income tax rate of 23.7 per cent, according to the returns, which were filed jointly and also posted on the White House website on Friday.
The Bidens paid $16,444 in taxes to their home state of Delaware.
Jill Biden also paid $3,470 in income tax to Virginia from her work as a professor at Northern Virginia Community College.
The Bidens donated $20,523 to seven charities last year, which was about one-third of the money the Obamas gave away. The bulk of the Bidens’ charitable donations, $15,300 in royalties from a children’s book written by Jill Biden, was donated to the USO, a military service organisation.
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Remember folks. Pat gallagher didnt vote two days ago on whether to release the letter from the ecb to Brian lenihan which ff, fg, labour and the esb have been trying to keep from us since 2010. When that letter is finally released in the coming days/weeks watch them all go “independent” ff/fg/labour
Yes trevor sinn fein were the only party to vote for the release of the letter. Fg and labour voted against. Wonder if rte reported that.
With good reason. Sensitive financial information that could undermine our recovery or cause instability in our dealings with the markets or the ECB.
You are hardly going to trust a person you have to work with if private correspondence is published.
Ah seanie i do enjoy your posts. What is the official ff line on this letter? The cope didnt vote and the ombudsman ruled it should be published.
Get back in your box Seanie…FF Fluffer
I’m from Donegal and if Gallagher says his main priorities are ‘to bring jobs to the northwest’ then I don’t see the point in his last 13 years work or do I see the point in his highly paid position even being available.
If I had a vote tomorrow on being able to leave the eu, I’d be voting to leave it.
The last thing we need in Europe at the moment is people from Fianna Fail ‘representing’ us. Hopefully the people in the Midlands-North West region will be wise enough to not vote for these two.
Do we want FG, Labour, SF or the Looney left representing us?
There may be a variance in political rhetoric while they’re rifling through our pockets, but they’re all much the same.
What we have is a political deficit that dwarfs our fiscal deficit.
We need people like Thomas Byrne standing up for Ireland in Brussels.
Thomas has wonderful experience from his time in the Seanad and Pat knows the workings of the EU.
Pity they’re both FF rats.
Tell me Seanie, is Thomas Byrne in favour of the property tax and water charges? Yes or no?
Thomas was a TD in the 2007/11 regime that betrayed our freedom to the Nazi EU. Thomas stands for venture capitalism and is a “money man” has no interest in the ordinary man and the damage caused by the FF regime and longs for the halsyon days of greed and capitalist pillage to return.
As someone from the constituency i have no idea what pat the cope gallagher ever done for that area. He is never in the media for having done or said anything. As for the other muppet, the people gave him their answer in 2011. If im in the country my vote will go to matt carthy.
Another spiv like Brian Crowley below in Cork, who only pops up oozing insincerity at voting time. Smallest FF logo ever, into the bargain.
@Amphroaí My dear fellow when you blossomed onto this forum a number of weeks ago – it was your effervescent use of the queens English which was so refreshing, scintillating and incandescent – it is such a shame to see you delve into the crassness of the tongue of the ordinary peasants.. Is there not a more rhythmic way to describe the delinquent character of the ruling class than ‘spiv’?
Perhaps the heroics of the Irish team have rendered your vocabulary into to a more ‘rustic’ overture. You of course subscribe to the notion that the traditional allocation of executive responsibilities has always been so determined as to liberate the ministerial incumbent from the administrative minutiae by devolving the managerial functions to those whose experience and qualifications have better formed them for the performance of such humble offices, thereby releasing their political overlords for the more onerous duties and profound deliberations which are the inevitable concomitant of their exalted position?
On reflection, my dear fellow interlocutors, you are most assuredly correct. I can only crave your collective pardons for my tardy, untimely, and gradual yet interminable descent into crass generalities, truncated and incisive, yet trivial and inelegant, and undertake forthwith to apply a greater burden of thought and alacrity to my wordy ejaculations herein than I have been in the habit of imparting upon such outpourings in the recent past.
I thank you for your candour, sir.
Good to see service resumed old boy… i pray those ‘wordy ejaculations’ are never directed against my humble self. Carry on.
Indeed, I have been perhaps overly liberal in my enjoyment of the pleasures of Bacchus in the last single digit measure of quarterly portions to cycles of the moon. I have been of late enjoying the triple banquet of bloodsport that has been presented for my delectation by the onset of local elections, Six Nations rugby football tournaments and the wedding of my sister.
I fear I am still in the early stages of recovery from the latter two, while relishing the inevitable unfolding of the former.
Never, dear sir. I reserve my lengthy salvos for those who deserve them.
Deadly :-)))))
What the people of Midlands-North West region want to hear from Pat ‘ The Cope’ Gallagher and Thomas Byrne is where do they stand on the Property/Bondholder Tax and on water charges. During the Meath bye-election Byrne was asked about the property tax and gave a vague answer. His refusal to condemn property tax and Fianna Fáil’s refusal to give a commitment to scrap it cost Byrne that election. The people want to hear it loud and clear from Fianna Fáil now, no if’s, no buts, no maybe – are you in favour of property tax and water charges?
Pat the dope Gallagher ,is that what they said or was that the voters
Pat Gallagher isn’t as catchy I suppose.
It came from Co-Op the family had the co-Op there years ago. It was used to differentiate between Gallagher families
So he’s really Pat “co op” Gallagher!!
They probably can’t up with the nickname themselves. I doubt they care but I refuse to humour them by using it.
Genuine question here, is he allowed to put his Nickname on the ballot paper? I would hope not
More like “Can’t Cope” , except when it comes to claiming salary , and expenses!
After everything that has gone before, there has to be something inherently wrong with someone who votes for FF.
Dumb and Dumber
Yawn.
FF. How the mighty have fallen You’d wonder whether some of their new recruits were dropping leaflets in or casing the joint
I don’t think anyone will be breaking in to your council house, Susanna. Unless ur shinner buddies are in the area.
Huh?
Seanie, with the greatest respect in the world, many Fianna Fail supporters down through the years lived in local authority housing and many still do, that was where the core support of the party was based for many years, slightly facetious comment
And seanies assumptions are based on ?
The Cope is off to a good start.
140 jobs lost in Gweedore, on his doorstep.
PS “Cope” is pronounced to rhyme with “Dope”
Starters orders. And off they go.
Fianna Fáil destroyed Ireland economically!
Fianna Fáil gave “cover” to many dishonest politicians who deceived the Irish Electorate election after election since the foundation of the Irish State!
” I won the money at the horses”!
Paddy the plasterer bought my house!
Remember Haughty, Lawlor, Callely to name but a few!
Michael Martin set up the HSE which has cost the country Billions of Euro!
Are…..tossers
Not really the newest.
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