Biden Gave Average of $369 Annually to Charity in Last Decade

Biden Gave Average of $369 Annually to Charity in Last Decade

Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Delaware Senator Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for vice president, and his wife reported giving less than half of one percent of their income to charity during the past decade, below the national average, tax records show.

A Biden spokesman said the couple has given more to charity than they claimed on their taxes.

Biden and his wife, Jill, earned $319,853 in adjusted gross income and paid $72,787 in federal taxes last year, including $2,721 in alternative minimum taxes. They claimed $995 in deductions for charitable giving, about triple what they deducted in any of the nine previous years. Over the past decade they reported giving an average of $369 to charity.

Their deductions for charitable giving -- about two-tenths of one percent of their income -- is lower than the national average of about 3.1 percent, according to JustGive.org, a nonprofit organization that connects donors with charities.

``That lack of charitable giving at that level of income would definitely be outside the range of what we say is normal,'','' said Russell James, a professor at the University of Georgia who researches charitable giving.

Biden spokesman David Wade said the deductions on the tax forms ``are not the sum of their annual contributions to charity.'' The Bidens ``contribute to their church, and they also contribute to their favorite causes.'' He said the Bidens also do volunteer work with military families and for other causes.