Obamas Made $4.2 Million, Thanks to Barack Books

The Democratic presidential candidates have just wrapped up their debate, but right before the debate, Barack Obama released his and his wife Michelle's tax returns for 2007, showing they made $4,238,165 last year. Most of it--$3,943,378--was from royalties from Obama's books.

The couple made $260,735 in salaried income and Michelle Obama also earned about $30,000 for sitting on the board of food producer TreeHouse Foods; she left the position, per ABC News, after complaints "TreeHouse is a supplier to Wal-Mart, and Barack Obama has criticized some of Wal-Mart's policies and treatment of employees." They also donated $240,370 to charity (including $26,270 to Trinity United Church of Christ and $50,000 to the United Negro College fund) and ended up paying $1.4 million in taxes.

The couple reported almost $1 million in income for 2006 (you can download their 2000-2006 returns here; here's a PDF of the 2007 return). Two weeks ago, the Clintons released their 2000-2007 returns showing $109 million in income.

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By Jen Chung in News on April 16, 2008 10:22 PM

Comments [rss]

JMH

Nice of the them both to contribute $3 to the presidential election campaign.
Heh.

theevilone

Actually, based on their taxable income, they paid just over 37%.

Gregoire

John McCain is worth all of Obamas and Clintons combined.

fmike

More like 33%. Math.

nik13

Poor Michelle - her pay from Treehouse has progressively shrank from 51K, through 45K to mere 30K in 3 years, nevermind annual 7,500 Treehouse stock options, worth a further $72,375. She can hardly afford Jimmy Choos & diamond jewelry in this evil country. No wonder she's bitter & clings to a religion of a priest-charlatan.

Snoopy

Didn't Michael Jackson donate money to the Ignited Negro College Fund also? It was right after he did that Pepsi commercial if I remember right.