White House discloses Obama's family assets

WASHINGTON - The White House released on Tuesday the financial disclosure documents for President Barack Obama, which show the US first family last year held assets valued between about 2.6 million dollars and nearly 8.3 million dollars.

The assets of Obama and first lady Michelle were valued between 1.8 million dollars and nearly 12 million dollars in 2010.

US President Barack Obama sits next to US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano during the National Peace Officers Memorial Service on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 15, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

The family also has a 30-year mortgage on their Chicago home worth between 500,000 dollars and 1 million dollars with an interest rate of 5.625 percent.

The forms that high-level federal officials are required to disclose under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 could be filled in broad ranges, making it difficult to figure out a precise net worth.

Royalties for Obama's three books, including "Dreams From My Father," "The Audacity of Hope" and "Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters," took a big share of his assets, ranging between 250, 000 dollars and 2.1 million dollars.

In April, the White House released tax returns of the first family, which reported an adjusted gross income of 789,674 dollars for last year and paid 162,074 dollars in taxes. Obama's effective federal income tax rate is 20.5 percent.

Obama, who has released his tax information for 12 years, also urged presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to do the same. The Obama campaign has been pushing multimillionaire Romney to release more of his prior tax returns.

In response, the Romney campaign said that he will file his tax returns before the 2012 election. His campaign estimated that he earned about 21 million dollars last year with the tax liability at 3.2 million dollars.