After filing his taxes this year, President Obama scored a $25,000 federal tax refund — bigger than some workers' annual salary. It turns out, though, that "fatty tax checks for presidents aren't anything new," says Nicole Fabian-Weber at The Stir, and President Obama's 2011 haul is actually on the smallish side, historically speaking. Big refunds are often due to generous charitable giving, sizable annual incomes, and proportionally high taxes; though "if we were suspicious," says Peter Grier at The Christian Science Monitor, "we'd say that presidential advisers tell new chief executives that it's better" to overpay and receive a refund than underpay and have to pony up more later, lest they risk looking "like they're not willing to pay their fair share." Here, a look at some recent presidential refunds and related tax numbers from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.:
$789,674
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