Romney Paid More Than Required, Raising Tax Rate to 14.1 Percent
Romney Paid More Than Required, Raising Tax Rate to 14.1 Percent
Sept. 21, 2012
After being criticized for months over a lack of transparency when it came to his taxes, Mitt Romney has revealed his 2011 returns, which show the candidate paid $1.9 million in taxes on $13.7 million in income, an effective rate of 14.1 percent.
See Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns Here
That figure falls in line with Romney’s estimate in August that he paid “13.6 [percent] or something like that.”
But Romney only reached the 14.1 percent mark by limiting deductions taken from his considerable charitable giving. Had the Romneys taken all of the deductions made available by their $4.02 million in 2011 donations, his effective tax rate could have been as low as 10.4 percent.
By not using all the available deductions, he paid an additional $500,000 to the federal government.
That decision contradicts a pledge Romney made during an interview in July, when he told ABC News he would not pay more in taxes “than are legally due. And, frankly, if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president. I’d think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires.”
