Mitt Romney deliberately paid more than he needed to in taxes this year … because he chose not to deduct all of the nearly 30 percent of his income that he donated to charities. From his campaign:
Regarding the newly-filed 2011 Tax Return:
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.
The campaign also released details about Romney’s tax returns going back 20 years:
Regarding the PWC [PricewaterhouseCoopers] letter covering the Romneys’ tax filings over 20 years, from 1990 – 2009:
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.
During the 20-year period covered by the PWC [PricewaterhouseCoopers] letter, Gov. and Mrs. Romney paid 100 percent of the taxes that they owed.
So to repeat, Romney has paid taxes every year, and oh, has also donated about 13 percent of his income to charity every year.