Romney campaign touts his tax-return transparency

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney paid about $3 million in federal income taxes in 2010, having earned more than seven times that from his investments.

Those earnings, $21.7 million, put him among the wealthiest of American taxpayers. Romney's campaign said today he followed all tax laws.

At the same time, Romney gave nearly $3 million to charity — about half of that amount to the Mormon Church — which helped lower his effective tax rate to a modest 14 percent, according to records his campaign released early today.

Romney campaign advisers said the release of more than 500 pages of returns, schedules and worksheets was in "full compliance" with U.S. tax laws and was an effort to provide maximum transparency to the American public.

Romney had refused until recently to disclose any federal tax returns then hinted he would only offer a single year's return in April. But mounting criticism from his rivals and a hard loss in last week's South Carolina primary forced his hand.

For 2011, Romney will pay about $3.2 million with an effective tax rate of about 15.4 percent, the campaign said. Those returns haven't yet been filed yet with the Internal Revenue Service. In total, he would pay more than $6.2 million in taxes over the past two years, his campaign said.