By Marian Wang, ProPublica
It’s Tax Day, and if you’re miffed and looking for a Tea Party Tax Day event [1] to join, perhaps you should first take a look at what the Obamas are paying in federal taxes. It might provide a bit of consolation.
According to the First Family’s 2010 tax return [2], the Obamas paid in excess of $450,000 in federal taxes—more than the President’s $400,000 salary. Much of the family’s income is from book sales, which slowed over the past year, causing their income to dip from $5.5 million in 2009 to $1.7 million last year. As the New York Times notes [3], the Obamas had a tax rate of just over 26 percent.
The Bidens earned about $379,000 in income [4] and paid $87,000 in federal taxes last year—a tax rate of about 23 percent.
That’s more than the average federal income tax rate, which, according to the Associated Press is 9.3 percent [5]. The AP also reported that the richest U.S. households—whose income is officially taxed at 35 percent—paid a tax rate of about 17 percent after factoring in lucrative tax breaks.
In a speech last week, President Obama made clear he would block the extension of the Bush tax cuts [6], which expire at the end of 2012. That would raise the tax rates on individuals making more than $200,000 and households making more than $250,000—and would clearly apply to both the Obamas and the Bidens.
The White House released the tax returns [7] today. We’ve posted them in our document viewer, so if you’re not rushing off to the post office to mail in your own returns, have [2] a look.
Originally Published at ProPublica: http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/check-out-president-obama-and-vp-bidens-2010-tax-returns