Mitt Romney attempted on Friday to finally put to rest any fervor over his past tax returns by releasing the full 2011 return as well as a summary of the previous 20 years worth of tax data.
The Obama campaign and many other Democrats have pushed Romney to release more than the federally mandated requirements hoping to uncover some politically unfavorable material.
For 2011, Romney in fact paid almost $2 million on mostly investment income, which comes out to a 14% federal rate. Also noteworthy is the fact that the Romney family donated over $4 million to charities. This accounts for almost one third of their overall income.
For background on Romney’s 20-year returns, many politicians allow their investments to go into a “blind trust” which is managed by someone else and the politician is not allowed to see or influence in any way. This prevents the appearance of insider trading, etc. So, the trustee of Romney’s blind trust released a summary of the last 20 years of Romney taxes along with the 2011 return. This showed Romney’s average federal rate was 20%. The Romneys also donated about 13% of their income to charity over that period of time as well. Trustee Brad Malt finished his letter with statement, “During the 20-year period covered by the PWC letter, Gov. and Mrs. Romney paid 100 percent of the taxes that they owed.”
President and Mrs. Obama and Vice President and Mrs. Biden have released a full 10 years of tax records.
It remains to be seen whether or not this disclosure will tamp down the yearning of Democrats for more information on Romney’s personal finances. But this release is definitely an attempt to end the zeal for more personal dirt on Mitt Romney.
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