Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney earned $21.7 million in 2010 but only paid about 14 per cent in federal taxes, according to records released Tuesday.

In addition to forking over about $3 million in taxes, records also show Romney gave nearly the same amount to charity -- about half of which went to the Mormon Church.

Campaign officials say the former Massachusetts governor will pay about $3.2 million for 2011, making his tax rate about 15.4 per cent. Those returns haven't been filed yet.

It's a revelation that ensures him a spot in the pantheon of wealthy American taxpayers and comes three days after rival Newt Gingrich made his own tax returns public. (Gingrich paid about $1 million in income tax, or about 31 per cent.)

Romney's Republican rivals have used his wealth to fuel attack campaigns since the race first began. Detractors have asked him to explain his work as head of venture firm Bain Capital and why he has some money sitting in investments in the Cayman Islands.

Earlier this month, a pro-Newt Gingrich ad campaign released a short film trailer painting Romney as a "corporate raider" who exploited American businesses during his time at Bain Capital.

"His mission? To reap massive rewards for himself and his investors," a narrator says in a trailer for "King of Bain: When Mitt Romney Came to Town."

The film was created by a so-called political action committee and not the Gingrich campaign itself but does little to extinguish criticism of Romney as a high-roller.

The release of Romney's tax returns comes after various media outlets saw a sample of the documents earlier in the week.

Speaking at a Monday night debate in Florida, Romney announced his plans to release the returns in full and said he's proud to prove that he pays taxes.

"I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more," he said. "I don't think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes."

Romney's tax returns show about $4.5 million in itemized deductions and place him in the top one per cent of taxpayers, a percentage point made famous by widespread Occupy protests opposed to income disparity amongst other issues.

A counteroffensive?

In the past few days, the Romney campaign has come out swinging at Gingrich for his work with Freddie Mac, one of America's biggest buyers of home mortgages.

"While Florida families lost everything in the housing crisis, Gingrich cashed in," says a narrator in a pro-Romney advertisement posted online.

The video goes on to criticize Gingrich for earning $1.6 million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac, which it describes as the "scandal-ridden agency" that helped create the housing crisis.

Romney, however, has as much as $500,000 invested in the U.S.-backed housing lender and its sister entity Fannie Mae.

While the Gingrich campaign attempts to depict Romney as a "corporate raider," videos from the Romney campaign refer to his rival as a "Washington insider."

Opinions about Romney's tax returns flooded into micro-blogging website Twitter on Tuesday but one of the top "promoted tweets" was paid for by the Romney campaign. The message linked to the video criticizing Gingrich's time at Freddie Mac.

"Playing Newt at his own game. Nice!" one Twitter user wrote in response.

The wealth-related barbs come as Republican presidential candidates tear into one another ahead of Florida's Jan. 31 primary. As the Florida campaign heats up, Romney appears to be trying out a more aggressive tone.

With files from The Associated Press