Under mounting pressure from rivals, US Republican White House candidate Mitt Romney has released tax returns disclosing his multi-million-dollar income, according to the Washington Post.
Romney -- a multi-millionaire former venture capitalist -- reported income of $21.7 million in 2010 and $20.9 million last year, virtually all of it from investments, the Post reported shortly after midnight (0500 GMT) Tuesday.
The Romney family gave away $7 million in charitable contributions since 2010 -- mostly to the Mormon Church -- and paid just $6.2 million in federal income taxes during the same period, the Post reported.
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Romney paid $3 million in 2010 for an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent and estimates he will pay $3.2 million for his income last year, an effective rate of 15.4 percent -- far less than former House speaker Newt Gingrich, his chief Republican rival, or Democratic President Barack Obama.
Rival candidates have been hammering Romney -- a former Massachusetts governor and on-again off-again frontrunner -- to release his tax returns in line with other candidates running in the 2012 presidential election.
Romney had hinted he would release them following the April filing deadline, but appeared to have changed course following his crushing loss to Gingrich in last weekend's South Carolina primary.
Romney's opponents -- both Democrats and Republicans -- have accused him of preying on companies during his years at the head of equity firm Bain Capital, reaping huge profits while bankrupting firms and destroying jobs.
Romney has said his business acumen makes him the candidate most able to steer the country out of the economic doldrums, arguing that he turned around several companies and generated tens of thousands of jobs while at Bain.
The Post said Romney had provided the newspaper with a preview of his 2011 and 2010 tax returns ahead of a planned public release later on Tuesday.
Romney and Gingrich are locked in an bitter struggle over delegate-rich Florida, the next state to vote in the months-long process to select a Republican to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama in November.
