Mitt Romney says that tax rates are too high—so high that he wants to cut them.
So why did he deliberately avoid deducting charitable contributions in
his 2011 tax return in order to pay a higher effective tax rate?
The Romney campaign released a letter about the Romneys' 2011 return on Friday, and says it plans to release the full return and a summary of previous years' returns late Friday. The Romneys, who are most likely worth more than $200 million, paid a 14.1 percent effective tax rate in 2011, less than many Americans who aren't nearly that wealthy. But they did so deliberately: The Romneys gave $4.1 million to charity, but only took a deduction of 2.5 million of that in order to make sure their tax rate stayed above 14 percent.
Forget for a second that Romney once said that paying more in taxes than owed would disqualify someone from running for president. The cynical answer here is that Romney deliberately paid more in taxes because he's "running for office for pete's sake." But his doing so undercuts one of his core policy arguments: That tax rates on the wealthy are too high. Not only that, but as revealed in the recording of a private fundraiser published by Mother Jones, Romney believes that those who pay income taxes are financing the laziness of those who don't, even though that's not a realistic description of Americans don't pay income taxes.
Yet Romney just opted to shovel more cash to those he sees as irresponsible moochers, because paying an even lower tax rate might harm his chances of getting elected. The best part? If he loses, he might be able to file an amended return and claim those deductions anyway.
The Romney campaign released a letter about the Romneys' 2011 return on Friday, and says it plans to release the full return and a summary of previous years' returns late Friday. The Romneys, who are most likely worth more than $200 million, paid a 14.1 percent effective tax rate in 2011, less than many Americans who aren't nearly that wealthy. But they did so deliberately: The Romneys gave $4.1 million to charity, but only took a deduction of 2.5 million of that in order to make sure their tax rate stayed above 14 percent.
Forget for a second that Romney once said that paying more in taxes than owed would disqualify someone from running for president. The cynical answer here is that Romney deliberately paid more in taxes because he's "running for office for pete's sake." But his doing so undercuts one of his core policy arguments: That tax rates on the wealthy are too high. Not only that, but as revealed in the recording of a private fundraiser published by Mother Jones, Romney believes that those who pay income taxes are financing the laziness of those who don't, even though that's not a realistic description of Americans don't pay income taxes.
Yet Romney just opted to shovel more cash to those he sees as irresponsible moochers, because paying an even lower tax rate might harm his chances of getting elected. The best part? If he loses, he might be able to file an amended return and claim those deductions anyway.
Mitt Romney and
his wife Ann paid $1,935,708 in federal taxes last year on income of
$13,696,951, an effective tax rate for the couple of 14.1 percent, the Republican presidential nominee's campaign just reported.
That's in line with statements the candidate made earlier this year that he paid at least 13 percent in each of the past 10 years.
The couple's returns were posted online at 3 p.m. ET.
With the 2011 return, the campaign says, will be "a notarized letter from the Romneys' tax preparer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP (PWC), giving a summary of tax rates from the Romneys' tax returns for the 20-year period of 1990-2009." That, says the campaign, will state that the Romneys' "average annual effective federal tax was 20.20 percent" over those 20 years.
Romney previously released his 2010 returns, but has declined to go back further. The Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, famously said this summer that he's been told by an unnamed source that Romney paid no income taxes over the past decade and should release returns from more years. Romney rejected that charge, and PricewaterhouseCoopers' statement is a response to it.
But as It's All Politics has previously noted:
Update at 2:40 p.m. ET. Medical Information Will Be Posted Too:
The campaign says that "in addition to new documents related to tax filings, the campaign will also be posting on the same website physician letters for both Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan, making public their current state of health."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/09/21/161555470/romneys-2011-tax-return-shows-he-paid-at-14-1-percent-rate-campaign-says?sc=nl&cc=brk-20120921-1501
That's in line with statements the candidate made earlier this year that he paid at least 13 percent in each of the past 10 years.
The couple's returns were posted online at 3 p.m. ET.
With the 2011 return, the campaign says, will be "a notarized letter from the Romneys' tax preparer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP (PWC), giving a summary of tax rates from the Romneys' tax returns for the 20-year period of 1990-2009." That, says the campaign, will state that the Romneys' "average annual effective federal tax was 20.20 percent" over those 20 years.
Romney previously released his 2010 returns, but has declined to go back further. The Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, famously said this summer that he's been told by an unnamed source that Romney paid no income taxes over the past decade and should release returns from more years. Romney rejected that charge, and PricewaterhouseCoopers' statement is a response to it.
But as It's All Politics has previously noted:
"Since 1980 (when Republican Ronald Reagan released just one year of returns) only one party nominee or presumptive nominee other than Romney has released fewer than six years of returns, according to PolitiFact. That was Republican John McCain, who released two years of returns in 2008."So expect to hear more from Democrats about why they think Romney should give more information.
Update at 2:40 p.m. ET. Medical Information Will Be Posted Too:
The campaign says that "in addition to new documents related to tax filings, the campaign will also be posting on the same website physician letters for both Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan, making public their current state of health."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/09/21/161555470/romneys-2011-tax-return-shows-he-paid-at-14-1-percent-rate-campaign-says?sc=nl&cc=brk-20120921-1501
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