WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle made $5.5 million last year — much of it from sales of his two books and his $400,000 annual salary — and contributed $329,100 of it to charities, according to tax returns released Thursday.
Their contributions to 40 charities represented nearly 6 percent of the Obamas' adjusted gross income. After deducting those and other items from their taxable income, the Obamas paid $1,792,414 in federal income tax, about 32 percent of their income, and $163,303 in Illinois income tax.
The president, vice president and members of Congress can pay local income taxes in their home states rather than to the District of Columbia. Obama and the vice president maintain their legal residences in Illinois and Delaware, respectively.
The taxable income didn't include the $1.4 million that Obama won with the Nobel Peace Prize last year. Obama asked the Nobel committee to send the money directly to 10 charities and, under Internal Revenue Service rules, he didn't add the prize to his income and didn't deduct the amount given to charities from his taxable income.
Obama's charitable contributions included:
_ $50,000 each to CARE, an anti-poverty group, and the United Negro Coillege Fund;
_ $20,000 to the Boys and Girls Clubs;
_ $15,000 each to the National MS Society and the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance;
_ $10,000 each to the American Red Cross, Greater New Orleans Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, Washington homeless shelter Miriam's Kitchen, the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans and Life Pieces to Masterpieces, a group for young African-American men in Washington, D.C.
His list also included two contributions to Washington churches, $250 to St. John's and $200 to the 19th Street Baptist Church. Obama isn't a regular churchgoer.
Vice President Joseph Biden and his wife reported $333,182 in adjusted gross income, much of it from his 2009 salary of $227,300 and Jill Biden's $42,486 as a community college instructor.
They deducted $4,820 for contributions to charities, about 1.4 percent of his income.
A spokeswoman, Elizabeth Alexander, said that Biden also gives money to other charities as well as to the church, but does so in cash and doesn't keep the receipts he'd need to deduct those from his taxable income.
A Roman Catholic, Biden attends several churches, including ones near his home in Delaware, one in Washington, and others around the country when he's traveling, she said.
The Bidens paid $71,147 in federal income taxes, $12,420 in Delaware income taxes, and $1,477 in Virginia income taxes, as that's where Jill Biden teaches.
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Vice President Biden's tax return
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