Thaindian News

Apr 16 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Barack Obama, and his wife Michelle made 5.5 million dollars income last year, and had around $1.8 to pay in taxes. Their taxable income was 5 million after the deductions, such as the $329,100 that was given to charities during the year. The 1.4 million dollar Nobel Peace Prize was never claimed on the Obama’s taxes because he never received it. It was donated to 10 different charitable groups, and was therefore not included in his 2009 income. He does not get a deduction for the donation, since he never received it.

President Obama was a law school instructor before he took the Presidential seat. He was also a US senator, and became a millionaire a few years ago, after the sale of a book which he wrote entitled, “Dreams From My Father”, which was a memoir released in 1995, and a political book released in 2006 called, “The Audacity of Hope”. In 2007, these books earned him about 4 million in royalties. That was the year in which he launched his presidential campaign. He won two Grammy awards for the spoken-word category, because of the audio version of his books.

In 2008, the sales went down, and he made about 2.5 million. When interest in his book was revived after his election, his book sales more than doubled in 2009. He received $374,460 for being president since Jan 20.

Other former presidents’ first year income is as follows: U.S. President’s. George W. Bush earned $711,000 in 2001, his first year in office. Bill Clinton made $294,000 in 1993. George H.W. Bush earned $457,000 in 1989. Ronald Reagan collected $419,000 in 1981. The Biden family reported an income of about $333,000 last year.