Mitt Romney paid 14.1 percent tax rate for 2011

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney earned $13.69 million in 2011, mostly income from his investments, and paid $1.9 million in taxes for an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent, his campaign announced Friday. Following months of political pressure on him to reveal more information about his large personal fortune, Romney released his 2011 tax returns Friday afternoon, as well as a summary of his effective tax rates dating back to 1990. | Romney's campaign dropped his 2011 tax return Friday afternoon. Why? | If he wants to come back from swing state-deficit, he’d do well to embrace his moderate side. Romney earned $6.8 million from capital gains and another $3.6 million in interest, according to his tax return. None of his income came from wages, the primary source of income for most Americans. Capital gains are taxed at a substantially lower rate than wages and salaries for high-earners. Romney earned about $190,000 in author and speaking fees, as well as $260,390 for sitting on the board of Marriott International, according to the tax return. Romney and his wife, Ann, donated $4.02 million to charity in 2011, nearly 30 percent of their income, helping to reduce their tax obligation, the campaign said. The Romneys only claimed a tax deduction for $2.25 million of those charitable contributions to engineer a higher tax rate than they otherwise would have paid. This move was to “conform” to the candidate’s statement in August that he paid a federal income tax rate of at least 13 percent of his income in each of the last 10 years, R. Bradford Malt, Romney’s trustee, said in a statement released by the campaign. At a Republican presidential debate in January, on the same night he released his 2010 tax returns, Romney scoffed at the notion that he would pay more taxes than he is legally required. “You’ll see my income, how much taxes I’ve paid, how much I’ve paid to charity,” Romney said. “I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.” Campaign spokeswoman Michele Davis said in a statement that Romney “has been clear that no American need pay more than he or she owes under the law. At the same time, he was in the unique position of having made a commitment to the public that his tax rate would be above 13 percent. In order to be consistent with that statement, the Romneys limited their deduction of charitable contributions.” Much of the Romneys’ charitable contributions went to their foundation, the Tyler Charitable Foundation — which made donations to such causes as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund — as well as to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Many Mormons tithe 10 percent of their income each year. “Governor Romney’s tax returns show that not only has he been successful, he has also been incredibly generous,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said in a statement released by Romney’s campaign. “His millions of dollars in charitable contributions are to be admired. He has truly lived according to the Parable, ‘to whomever much is given, of him will much be required.’”AdChoices

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