Работает для меня с последним плагином maven (3.0.4) и 2.2.2 релиза maven в ртутном хранилище.
Фрагмент Pom
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.2.2</version>
<configuration>
<tagNameFormat>@{project.version}</tagNameFormat>
</configuration>
</plugin>
Log
D:\work\cloneProject>mvn release:prepare
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building my-app 1.1-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-release-plugin:2.2.2:prepare (default-cli) @ my-app ---
[INFO] Verifying that there are no local modifications...
[INFO] ignoring changes on: pom.xml.next, release.properties, pom.xml.releaseB
ackup, pom.xml.backup, pom.xml.branch, pom.xml.tag
[INFO] EXECUTING: cmd.exe /X /C "hg status"
[INFO] [release.properties:unknown]
[INFO] Checking dependencies and plugins for snapshots ...
What is the release version for "my-app"? (com.mycompany.app:my-app) 1.1: :
What is SCM release tag or label for "my-app"? (com.mycompany.app:my-app) 1.1: :