OBAMA THE TAX-PAYER

Barack Obama paid 20.5% tax in 2011

* US President Barack Obama has released his tax return for 2011, as he seeks to make taxation a key election issue with his Republican foes.

* The return says Mr Obama paid an effective tax rate of 20.5% on total income of nearly $790,000 (£498,000).

* The president has recently advocated making wealthy Americans pay more tax.

* Mr Obama is seen as trying to cast his likely Republican challenger Mitt Romney as remote from ordinary economic concerns.

* Mr Romney, a wealthy venture capitalist, is likely to pay 15.4% in tax on an income of $20.9m in 2011, according to an estimate he has released.

* Mr Romney pays a lower rate because the US tax system treats income from investments more favourably than wage earnings.

* Half of Mr Obama's $789,674 income in 2011 came from his presidential salary, with the remainder from sales of his books, according to the return published by the White House.

* Mr Obama and fellow Democrats have renewed calls for the rich to pay a "fair share", ahead of a vote in the US Senate on the so-called "Buffett Rule".

* Under the proposal before the Senate, named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, there would be a minimum 30% tax on earnings over $1m.