That year, the couple paid $11,944 in taxes, for a tax rate of just under 10 percent.

Yet for a couple with modest incomes, the Palins have amassed a sizable portfolio that consists mainly of retirement investments and real estate.

The family home in Wasilla, which has been valued for tax purposes at $550,000, was listed on the federal financial disclosure form, which requires that all values be given in ranges, at between $500,000 and $1,000,000.

The remaining real estate was valued at between $150,000 and $365,000 and consisted of a fishing leasehold on the Nushagak River and partial interest in two other pieces of land.

The Palins kept their taxes low by putting all their investable assets into tax deferred accounts, including 401(k)s, IRAs and defined contribution plans from Wasilla, the state of Alaska and BP Alaska.

The disclosure form listed the portfolio's value as between $300,000 and around $850,000. The assets in these retirement accounts included a sophisticated range of investments, among them mutual funds invested in Latin America, small cap stocks, shares in Spanish, Belgian and Australian indexes and a mid-cap growth fund. Among the firms represented in the portfolio are Morgan Stanley, Putnam, T. Rowe Price and Alliance Bernstein, all well-known Wall Street companies.