Obamas earned $2.7 million in '08, and the Bidens $269,000

WASHINGTON - President Obama is one taxpayer who filed on time. Returns released yesterday by the White House show that he and his wife, Michelle, earned nearly $2.7 million last year and paid just under a third of their adjusted income in federal taxes.

While the income, mostly the president's, far exceeded the U.S. median household income of about $50,000, it was quite a decrease from the $4.2 million the couple made in 2007.

Earlier yesterday, Obama declared that he aims to ease the dread of tax-deadline day with "a simpler tax code that rewards work and the pursuit of the American dream."

"For too long, we've seen taxes used as a wedge to scare people into supporting policies that increased the burden on working people instead of helping them live their dreams," he said. "That has to change, and that's the work that we've begun."

His words were hardly met with universal applause. Across the country, protesters met at statehouses and town squares to oppose Obama's federal spending since he took office.

Obama met with several working families to underscore his efforts to make the tax code more fair and less complex. He noted he has asked his economic advisers to report back by year's end on possible tax changes.

In both 2007 and 2008, nearly all of the Obamas' earnings came from his best-selling books. Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope brought in about $2.5 million in royalties last year, according to the returns.

President Obama earned $139,204 as a senator last year before leaving his Illinois seat after winning the November election. Michelle Obama earned $62,709 from the University of Chicago Hospitals, where she was an executive.

The couple's total federal tax came to $855,323, or 32 percent of their adjusted gross income of $2,656,902.

The Obamas overpaid by $26,014, and elected to apply that amount to their 2009 taxes. Their federal tax deductions included about $50,000 in home mortgage interest.

They reported contributing $172,050 to charity last year, including $25,000 each to the CARE international relief agency and the United Negro College Fund.

They gave a total of $1,400 to five churches. In contrast to 2007, they gave nothing to Trinity United Church of Christ. Barack Obama was a longtime member of the Chicago church and gave it $26,270 in 2007, but resigned from it and cut ties with its pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, after incendiary comments by Wright became a campaign issue.

The Obamas' total Illinois income tax was $78,765, their state return showed.

The White House also released Vice President Biden's returns. Biden and his wife, Jill, earned $269,256 last year. Their main sources of income were salaries from the Senate, Widener University, and Delaware Technical & Community College and royalties from the audio rights to Biden's memoir, Promises to Keep.

According to tax returns released by Biden's office, the couple paid $46,952 in federal income taxes and $11,164 in Delaware income taxes. They donated $1,885 to charity.

Tax protesters threw what appeared to be a box of tea bags toward the White House yesterday, prompting officials to lock down the compound. The Secret Service sent in a robot to inspect the package, which was hurled over the White House fence and onto the North Lawn, and determined it was not dangerous.

The package was thrown in an apparent act of defiance meant to echo the rebellion of the Boston Tea Party, part of organized protests yesterday across the country. Demonstrators said they disapproved of government spending since President Obama took office.

- Associated Press

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