Why won't Mitt Romney make his tax returns public?
| Washington
Welcome to the rumble in the tax return jungle.
Rick Perry (that鈥檚 the US individual tax return document). The Romney camp demurred, saying they would consider doing so next year. (Remarkably, Romney has NEVER released, even during his governorship of Massachusetts.)
Why won鈥檛 Romney do it? Speculation, from and others, is that Romney pays a way lower tax rate than many Americans because of his extensive financial investments, from which income is typically taxed below that of regular income. One Romney paid an effective tax rate as low as 14 percent on his $6.6 million to $40 million in income. (The range is so wide because of the imprecise nature of Romney鈥檚 very limited disclosures.)
To put that in perspective: In 2011, a married couple filing together would have to make under $69,000 to have their top tax rate be 15 percent. Uber-rich Warren Buffett says he pays 17 percent in taxes.
One point in Romney鈥檚 favor: The for all Americans was 11.06 percent in 2009. Nearly half of Americans pay no federal income tax, a point that hasn鈥檛 gone unmentioned in GOP presidential debates.
Why is this brouhaha important? As Decoder wrote earlier this week, Democrats and Republicans alike could be trying to 鈥� as wooden, politically inconsistent and out-of-touch with ordinary Americans. Paying a lower share of your income taxes than most if not all of your competitors for the presidency and a number of middle class Americans would help those attack lines along.
Moreover, if predictions about Mitt Romney鈥檚 tax situation are true, he would have to go in front of ordinary Americans at every debate, town hall and rope line saying he was looking out for their interests while paying a vastly lower percentage in taxes on his substantial wealth in taxes. [Editor's note: The original post omitted "percentage of taxes."]
Perry - who paid - is no doubt hoping Romney鈥檚 tax return would write the attack lines for him.
Want to dig deeper?
- Check out all presidential and (and some vice presidential) at TaxHistory.org.
- from liberal group Priorities USA for the repeal of the 鈥淩omney Rule,鈥� which they describe as having corporations and the rich pay less in taxes than the middle class.
- Want to 鈥淪crap the Code鈥�? from tea party group FreedomWorks arguing for a 鈥渟imple, low, fair and honest鈥� tax code.
Like your politics unscrambled? Check out .
