Romney goes above and beyond by releasing 2011 tax returns and 20 years of tax data

[patteeu]

Release of Romney's 2011 tax returns is imminent and the campaign has offered a preview of that return plus a summary of 20 years worth of relevant tax data:

2011 Highlights:

• In 2011, the Romneys paid $1,935,708 in taxes on $13,696,951 in mostly investment income.
• The Romneys’ effective tax rate for 2011 was 14.1%.
• The Romneys donated $4,020,772 to charity in 2011, amounting to nearly 30% of their income.
• The Romneys claimed a deduction for $2.25 million of those charitable contributions.
• The Romneys’ generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year. The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor's statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.

Additionally, the Romney campaign is releasing a summary of 20 years of taxes, between 1990-2009, detailing their tax expenditures during those years:

• In each year during the entire 20-year period, the Romneys owed both state and federal income taxes.
• Over the entire 20-year period, the average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.20%.
• Over the entire 20-year period, the lowest annual effective federal personal tax rate was 13.66%.
• Over the entire 20-year period, the Romneys gave to charity an average of 13.45% of their adjusted gross income.
• Over the entire 20-year period, the total federal and state taxes owed plus the total charitable donations deducted represented 38.49% of total AGI.

A few observations:

• Romney paid more, both in terms of dollars and effective tax rate, than any of you who are secretaries.
• In fact, he paid more, both in terms of dollars and effective tax rate, than most of the people who will read this post.
• Romney is one charitable son of a gun.

[Donger]

So, he's a felon, right?

[Mr. Kotter]

Beat you....with the real story.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Mr. Kotter

Beat you....with the real story.

No you didn't, Mr. 2 Minutes Behind.

[Mr. Kotter]

Originally Posted by patteeu

No you didn't, Mr. 2 Minutes Behind.

But my thread will be THE real headline out of this.

[Saul Good]

Originally Posted by Mr. Kotter

But my thread will be THE real headline out of this.

So you admit that the left controls the media...

[Mr. Kotter]

Originally Posted by Saul Badguy

So you admit that the left controls the media...

Yeah, especially FOX and RWNJ radio....

[Saul Good]

Holy shit. The dude paid $2,000,000 in taxes and donated another $4,000,000 to charities? Hopefully this Atlas doesn't shrug. People like him keep our country afloat.

[stonedstooge]

I wonder if the Blameless One donated the same percentage as Romney to charity

[Donger]

Originally Posted by stonedstooge

I wonder if the Blameless One donated the same percentage as Romney to charity

Obama gave 22% to charity last year.

[stonedstooge]

Originally Posted by Donger

Obama gave 22% to charity last year.

Thanks there Oil Slick

[Saul Good]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/...itable-giving/

Romney doubles Obama's charitable giving

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign is releasing a brief summary of 20 years of tax returns on Friday, and his accountant says it will show he gave 13.45 percent of his adjusted gross income to charities.

That's nearly twice the rate of President Obama, who according to his tax returns from 2000 through 2011 donated just less than 7 percent of his adjusted gross income to charities.

Mr. Romney's campaign did not release his returns, but instead had his trustee, Brad Malt, write a blog post giving some details of returns from 1990 through 2009.

The campaign has released Mr. Romney's 2010 return and, later Friday, will release his 2011 return, which he filed with the IRS earlier in the day.

That return will show Mr. Romney and his wife Ann paid $1.9 million in taxes on income of $13.7 million, for a rate of 14.1 percent, Mr. Malt said. Most of that income is from investments, which are usually taxed at a lower rate than salary or wages.

Mr. Malt said the Romneys would have had an even lower tax burden if they'd claimed the full deduction for all of their charitable giving in 2011, but said they "limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the governor's statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13 percent in income taxes in each of the last 10 years."

When charitable contributions and federal and state taxes are combined, it amounted to 38.5 percent of the Romneys' income, the trustee said.

Mr. Malt said the Romneys have owed taxes in each of the years in question — which contradicts a charge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, issued earlier this summer.

[Messier]

I love how you call it above and beyond, like his doing everyone a huge favor.

He asked for more when vetting Ryan.

[KC native]

I don't want a summary. If they aren't full returns we can't see if they actually paid the tax they are claiming they paid.

[Saul Good]

Originally Posted by KC native

I don't want a summary. If they aren't full returns we can't see if they actually paid the tax they are claiming they paid.

Yeah, because THEN, you'll consider voting for him.