Obamas pay $1.8m as federal income tax
Saturday, 17 April 2010
From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, April 16: President Obama and first lady Michelle filed their income tax return yesterday for the year 2009 showing an income of $5,505,509 which is more than double their 2008 income. April 15 was the last date for filing income tax returns in the United States.
The first couple listing their occupation as " US President " and " US First Lady " reported wages, salaries and tips of $347,400. The bulk of President's income came from the sales of Obama's two best selling books," Dreams from My Father" and " Audacity of Hope" Obamas paid $1,792,414 in federal income tax and donated $329,000, six percent of their income to 40 charitable organisations. They paid $50,000 to CARE, an NGO that fights global poverty and to United Negro College Fund, the New York Times reported today.
President Obama did not show his Noble prize money of $1.4 million in his income tax return as he had directed the Nobel Committee to donate it directly to charity. He did not have the option to claim the money as charitable deduction. He paid $163,303 as state income tax. Vice President Joseph Biden and wife Jill filed an income tax return showing an income of $333,182 and paid $71,147 as federal taxes. Bidens donated $4820 to charities.
This is what the rule of law is and the charm of American democracy that makes no discrimination between and a man on the street and the occupants of the White House, a Bangladeshi-American said after reading the news about the filing of income tax by the first family.
A volcanic cloud covered the skyline of much of Northern Europe causing an unprecedented disruption, forcing airlines to cancel thousands of flights. More than 73,000 flights have been affected leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded. Flights to and from Europe have been cancelled and their is little chance of flights resuming before miday tomorrow, media reported.
Among the stranded passengers in the JFK, New York, is the prime minister of Norway. This is unprecedented in living memory an aviation expert said. The disruption followed eruption on Wednesday of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano which hurled a plume of ash into atmosphere that spread to whole of Europe, an analyst said.
A UN team investigating the brutal killing of Benazir Bhutto concluded that the failure of the " Pakistani authorities to effectively investigate the killing was deliberate". The report also said Pakistan's intelligence agencies had intentionally blocked an impartial investigation.
The UN findings underscores the impunity with which political crimes are committed in Pakistan, the New York Times in a six column story said today. The report is particularly scathing about the then police chief of Rawalpindi. The report in large part dismisses the allegations that Asif Ali Zardari, now president, had any hand in the killing of his wife Benazir. Conspiracy theory involving Zardari simply had no basis, no evidence to be treated as credible hypotheses, the UN report said. The report criticised the pervasive influence of the country's army and the intelligence agency, the ISI.
The UN report made no definited judgement as to who was behind the plot to kill Benazir.
NEW YORK, April 16: President Obama and first lady Michelle filed their income tax return yesterday for the year 2009 showing an income of $5,505,509 which is more than double their 2008 income. April 15 was the last date for filing income tax returns in the United States.
The first couple listing their occupation as " US President " and " US First Lady " reported wages, salaries and tips of $347,400. The bulk of President's income came from the sales of Obama's two best selling books," Dreams from My Father" and " Audacity of Hope" Obamas paid $1,792,414 in federal income tax and donated $329,000, six percent of their income to 40 charitable organisations. They paid $50,000 to CARE, an NGO that fights global poverty and to United Negro College Fund, the New York Times reported today.
President Obama did not show his Noble prize money of $1.4 million in his income tax return as he had directed the Nobel Committee to donate it directly to charity. He did not have the option to claim the money as charitable deduction. He paid $163,303 as state income tax. Vice President Joseph Biden and wife Jill filed an income tax return showing an income of $333,182 and paid $71,147 as federal taxes. Bidens donated $4820 to charities.
This is what the rule of law is and the charm of American democracy that makes no discrimination between and a man on the street and the occupants of the White House, a Bangladeshi-American said after reading the news about the filing of income tax by the first family.
A volcanic cloud covered the skyline of much of Northern Europe causing an unprecedented disruption, forcing airlines to cancel thousands of flights. More than 73,000 flights have been affected leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded. Flights to and from Europe have been cancelled and their is little chance of flights resuming before miday tomorrow, media reported.
Among the stranded passengers in the JFK, New York, is the prime minister of Norway. This is unprecedented in living memory an aviation expert said. The disruption followed eruption on Wednesday of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano which hurled a plume of ash into atmosphere that spread to whole of Europe, an analyst said.
A UN team investigating the brutal killing of Benazir Bhutto concluded that the failure of the " Pakistani authorities to effectively investigate the killing was deliberate". The report also said Pakistan's intelligence agencies had intentionally blocked an impartial investigation.
The UN findings underscores the impunity with which political crimes are committed in Pakistan, the New York Times in a six column story said today. The report is particularly scathing about the then police chief of Rawalpindi. The report in large part dismisses the allegations that Asif Ali Zardari, now president, had any hand in the killing of his wife Benazir. Conspiracy theory involving Zardari simply had no basis, no evidence to be treated as credible hypotheses, the UN report said. The report criticised the pervasive influence of the country's army and the intelligence agency, the ISI.
The UN report made no definited judgement as to who was behind the plot to kill Benazir.