In a much anticipated move, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney released his 2011 tax returns. 

According to the Romney campaign, in 2011, the Romneys paid $1.9 million in taxes on $13.7 in their mostly investment income. The Romneys' effective tax rate for 2011 was 14.1 percent.

The campaign said the Romneys donated about $4 million to charity in 2011, amounting to nearly 30 percent of their income and claimed a deduction for $2.25 million of those charitable contributions. 

Campaign officials say the Romneys' generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year. 

"The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor's statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13 percent in income taxes in each of the last 10 years," R. Bradford Malt, a partner at Ropes & Gray, LLP and  trustee of the Romney's blind trust since 2003, said. 

By not taking all the deductions, he paid an additional $265,500 to the federal government.

In July, Romney told ABC News that he would not pay more in taxes "than are legally due and, frankly, if I had paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become president. I'd think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires."

The returns were released on Romeny's blog and appears as four separate documents. It includes Romney and his wife's Form 1040 as well as three underlying Massachusetts trusts detailing the sources of their income. Those are The W. Mitt Romney Blind Trust, The Ann D. Romney Blind Trust, and The Romney Family Trust.

Former IRS Commissioner Fred Goldberg said the returns reflect the complexity of the nation's tax laws and the types of investment activity that could be expected for persons in Romney's circumstances. 

"There is no indication or suggestion of any tax-motivated or aggressive tax planning activities," Goldberg said. "In my judgment, they have fully satisfied their responsibilities as taxpayers. They have done so by relying on a highly reputable return preparer and other advisors, who have in turn relied primarily on information provided by third parties to them and to the IRS. The end result of that process has been returns that include a multitude of schedules, IRS forms and accompanying statements that provide appropriate transparency and the proper payment of taxes that Governor and Mrs. Romney owe under current law."

In a notarized letter from the Romney family's tax preparer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP (PWC), it was revealed that in each year during the entire 20-year period, the Romneys owed both state and federal income taxes.

Over the entire 20-year period, the average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.20 percent and the lowest annual effective federal personal tax rate was 13.66%. Over the entire 20-year period, the Romneys gave to charity an average of 13.45 percent of their adjusted gross income.

Virtually all of the Romneys' income that year was from profits, stock dividends or interest payments from other investments. None came from wages, the primary source of income for most Americans.

Romney's newly released financial data can be accessed at MittRomney.com/disclosure. The campaign has also set up a unique email address for questions about the tax returns, returns@mittromney.com.

President Obama and his wife, Michelle, paid a little over $162,000 in federal taxes last year on adjusted gross income of $789,674 for a rate of 20.5 percent.

Romney is worth an estimated $190 million to $250 million, according to his most recent financial disclosure report.