Obama's Kids Income Doesn't Get Taxed

Do you remember your first paycheck as a teenager? It's a real eye opener.

I remember mine. I was 15 years old and hired at the Strafford Softball Complex in Strafford, Missouri, to keep score and prepare the fields for the evenings game. I worked for two whole weeks riding my bicycle to work each day before I finally got my check. Back in those days, I was paid $3 an hour, so my check probably didn't total much more than $100.

Of course, it was much less than I expected because I learned quickly I was also going to work to bow down to my federal master. Taken from my check were taxes. Oh when I saw that I was upset, very upset. All that work that I had done was penalized by some Washington idiot that felt they were owed their share of my labor. I still recall the scene from the office, which sat above the refreshment center in the center of the complex. Mouthy as ever, I complained, but there was just nothing they could do about it.

So it irks me today to read Barack Obama isn't teaching his daughters the reality he thinks he needs to teach other Americans--that you must bow down to the federal masters at the IRS and pay more.

President Obama and his wife, Michele, gave a total of $48,000 in tax-free gifts to their daughters, according to tax records made public on Friday. 


The president and his wife separately gave each daughter a $12,000 gift under a section of the federal tax code that exempts such donations from federal taxes. There is nothing illegal about the president’s taking advantage of this tax shelter, but it does raise eyebrows given that he has lamented the myriad tax exemptions used by the wealthy—“millionaires and billionaires” like himself—to pay less in taxes. He has yet to propose a comprehensive plan to reform the byzantine tax code. 


 The Obamas paid a total federal tax rate of 20.5 percent on a gross adjusted income $789,674, which would typically fall within the top federal rate of 35 percent. According to an analysis of the president’s tax return, he may have paid a lower rate than his secretary despite making more than eight times as much money as she did.


I wonder how the President would feel if someone was to redistribute his both his daughter's wealth through the federal income tax scheme. It's apparent he found some loopholes because he doesn't agree with what he preaches.