Obamas earned $5.5 million in 2009

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama on Thursday reported earning $5.5 million last year, with the majority of it from the sale of the president’s books.

The first couple paid $1.792 million in federal income taxes, according to their joint federal tax return released Thursday by the White House.

The Obamas reported donating $329,100 to 40 different charities.

The president, who last year won the Nobel Prize for Peace, also donated the $1.4 million in proceeds from the prize to 10 different charities. The president did not claim the prize money, or the charitable donation, on his taxes, the White House said, because the Internal Revenue Code provides that “if the recipient of the Nobel Prize directs the Nobel Committee to donate the prize income directly to charity, as the president did, the recipient does not have to recognize the prize as income on his federal income tax return.”

In releasing their Illinois income tax return, the first couple also reported paying $163,303 in state income taxes.