Blair earned 68K pounds for his foundation in 50 hours

London, Dec. 20 (ANI): Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair earned over 680,000 pounds for his US foundation after putting in 50 hours of work, according to tax returns filed with America's Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

According to The Telegraph, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation banked 704,940 dollars in cash and a further 400,000 dollars in pledges and grants, papers lodged with the IRS show.

The foundation spent 42,885 dollars on travel expenses, accounting and legal expenses of 13,238 dollars. There is no stated income from fund-raising events and all the money donated - 1,104,940 dollars - is derived from grants, gifts and other contributions.

On the IRS form used by organisations applying for tax exemption, Blair is obliged to declare the amount of time spent working for his US foundation - in this case an average of just one hour a week.

In other words, Blair, who is listed as the foundation's sole member and president, is helping to earn more than 1.1 million dollars for his foundation after working about 50 hours in total - about 20,000 dollar an hour.

The purpose of the foundation, according to the tax return, is to "promote mutual respect, tolerance, friendship and understanding between the major religious faiths and to make the case for faith itself as a relevant, positive and benign force for good in the modern world". (ANI)