Obamas earn €2m from best-selling books

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s long tenure on the bestseller list is paying off. He and his wife, Michelle, made $2.7 million (€2m) last year, nearly all of it from his books.

While the income was far more than the US median household income of about $50,000, it was far less than the $4.2m the Obamas made in 2007.

In both years, nearly all of the income came from Obama’s best-selling books. Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope brought in about $2.5m in royalties last year, according to copies of the returns released by the White House on Wednesday, the federal income tax filing deadline.

Obama earned $139,204 as a Democratic senator from Illinois last year before leaving his seat following the November election.

Michelle Obama received a salary of $62,709 from the University of Chicago Hospitals, where she was an executive.

The couple’s total federal tax came to $855,323. That was 32% of their adjusted gross income of $2,656,902.

The Obamas overpaid by $26,014 and elected to apply that amount to their 2009 taxes.

The couple’s federal tax deductions included about $50,000 in home mortgage interest. Their expenses also included $47,488 to send their two daughters to the University of Chicago’s elementary school.

They reported contributing $172,050 to charity last year, including $25,000 each to the CARE international relief agency and the United Negro College Fund. The $172,050 represented about 6.5% of the family’s adjusted gross income.

That percentage is roughly two to three times the national average for household donations to charity, according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.