October 2, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill Biden, have given an average of $369 per year to charities during the past decade, according to tax returns they released last month.
Senator Biden, the Democratic nominee for vice president, claimed $995 in charitable gifts in 2007 on the joint return with his wife. That figure is 0.3 percent of the couple’s total income of nearly $320,000.
The 2007 contributions were significantly higher than the couple’s gifts in previous years, which ranged from $120 to $380.
Mr. Biden, who has been described as the least-wealthy U.S. senator, made his tax returns available on the Web site of the Obama-Biden campaign.
A 2006 study of IRS data by the NewTithing Group in San Francisco found that Americans earning more than $200,000 annually give an average of 0.7 percent of their assets to charity.
As of the middle of last week, Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican pick for vice president, had not released her returns.
