Romney Releasing 2011 Taxes At 3 PM, ‘Summary’ Of 1990-2009 Returns

Mitt Romney will release a copy of his 2011 tax returns at 3 p.m. Friday as well as a summary of his tax rates -- but not, as requested by Democrats, copies of his actual returns -- for the years 1990-2009.

According to the campaign, Romney paid a 14.1 percent tax rate. Pushing back against speculation from Democrats, most notably Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), that he paid little to no taxes at some point in his career, Romney's campaign now claims the lowest effective rate he ever paid was 13.66 percent and that the average across the 20 year period 20.20 percent.

Romney deilberately did not claim about $1.75 million in charitable deductions for 2011 in order to avoid dipping below an effective tax rate of 13 percent, a threshold he said earlier in the year he had never crossed in his previous 10 tax returns.

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http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/romney-releasing-2011-taxes-at-3-pm-summary

Romney Artificially Inflated 2011 Taxes After Decrying The Idea

Mitt Romney's trustee said in a campaign press release that Romney artificially inflated his own effective tax rate so it would remain above 13 percent by deferring $1.75 million in charitable deductions. Romney had previously said that none of his last decade of tax returns dipped below that 13 percent threshold.

In an interview with ABC News in July, however, Romney dismissed the idea that he would ever pay more taxes than legally owed, saying if he did so he wouldn't be "qualified" to be president.

"I don't pay more 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," Romney said. "I'd think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires."

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/romney-artificially-inflated-2011-taxes-after-decrying-idea