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PDFFrom The Nation:
The 1990–2009 Summary
Romney’s trustee, Brad Malt, has a summary of the summary on the campaign website. (Note that Malt oversees Romney’s supposedly blind trust, which makes it interesting he’s also serving a campaign function here). It says:
- In each year during the entire 20-year period period, the Romneys owed both state and federal income taxes.
- Over the entire 20-year period period, the average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.20%.
- Over the entire 20-year period period, the lowest annual effective federal personal tax rate was 13.66%.
- Over the entire 20-year period period, the Romneys gave to charity an average of 13.45% of their adjusted gross income.
This is a really sneaky maneuver. The tax rate averages out to a semi-respectable 20.20 percent, but what does that really tell us? It’s still possible that in really high-earning years, Romney paid an absurdly low tax rate. If he paid a normal rate in lower-earning years, it could still produce that average.
And if Romney did pay really low rates during high-income years, what mechanisms did he use? What sort of tax shelters might he have employed? We don’t know that either, and aren’t likely to find out unless Romney releases the actual returns—something he required of all his potential vice-presidental nominees.
Also note the careful wording — it doesn’t state that he paid federal and state income taxes — it carefully states he owed income taxes for the previous 20 years.
Nice move, Mittens. When are you releasing your un-amended returns? I know running for President is hard, according to Miss Ann, but it’s time to come clean with the American electorate.
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