Taxing Issue

Apropos to the upcoming April 15^th tax filing deadline, President Obama and his wife, Michelle, have disclosed their 2013 tax returns.  They paid a total of $98 thousand in federal taxes on an income of $482 thousand (a tax rate of 20.4%). Their refund totaled a little north of $19 thousand which they applied to this year’s estimated taxes … see: CBS Story .  They also generously gave $59 thousand to various charities.

All well and good. However, the fundamental issue that I have with this disclosure is … what about the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars of benefits-in-kind that this duo receives from the U.S, taxpayers when they and their extended family and guests indulge themselves with their many globe-trotting vacations ... that are not part of official business.  This includes Air Force One and Marine One travel, the most luxurious hotel accommodations, five-star dining … and all the many other accouterments that they feel that they deserve … see: China Blossom for just the first quarter of 2014’s junkets. 

I realize that the first family receives a $100 thousand tax-free travel reimbursement as part of the President’s benefit package … but this is but a drop in the bucket relative to what they obviously palm off on us taxpayers. Where is this full-disclosure accounting for these sums?

I do believe that President Obama must have a friend at the Internal Revenue Service.