The President and Vice President have released their tax statements ahead of the April 15 deadline. Will any Republican candidate be so bold as to do the same?
As it has done each year of Obama’s presidency, the White House released the Obama Family’s tax return statement. Together, the couple made $477,383 in 2014. Therefore, they paid $93,362 in taxes on the most recent filing. The effective federal income tax rate that the couple paid was 19.6 percent.
Most of the money comes from Obama’s presidential salary, which currently stands at $395,000. Additional revenue comes from royalty payments for his two autobiographies “Dreams of My Father” and “Audacity of Hope”. He received a combined total of $94,889 from Random House and Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. This is down from $116,000 in royalty payments the year before.
The returns show that the couple gave about 15 percent of the income to charity last year, about $70,712 total. The largest donation, $22,012, was given to the Fisher House Foundation, a Chicago based charity that assists the families of military personnel who currently receiving medical treatment. They also donated $5000 to the exclusive private Sidwell Friends School, which both Malia and Sasha attend.
The tax statements of Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill were also released by the White House. The Bidens earned $388,844 in 2014 and paid $90,506 in federal taxes ahead of this Wednesday’s deadline. Their effective federal income tax rate was 23.3 percent. In 2014, they had only donated $7,380 to charity.
Several Republican candidates, notably Jeb Bush, have scrambled to release their previous tax statements in order to protect themselves from a Mitt Romney-like scandal. However, as of yet there is no news of any of the other Republican, or for that matter Democrat, presidential hopefuls releasing their tax returns.
Presidential candidate Ted Cruz released his taxes while running for president in 2012. They reveal he had made over $2 million in 2010. This year claims he wishes to abolish the IRS so perhaps he will have nothing to release.
The other official 2016 presidential candidate, Rand Paul, also favors a tax system overhaul. He calls for a ‘flat tax’. He admits that his proposal would not be able to raise as much money as the current system, which raises about $3 trillion. However, the tax form would be simplified to a 13 question postcard. Paul has not released his 2014 tax return.
Income tax can be a very personal topic. Yet it is one of the best ways to see how American leaders are making their money and what they are doing with it.
WhiteHouse.gov allows you download the Obamas’ and Bidens’ tax returns. If any other candidate hopes to be up to par, they will most likely have to do the same.
