Romney Releases 2011 Tax Returns and Summary for 20 Years

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney reported earning $13.7 million, mostly from investments, and paying nearly $2 million in taxes last year, according to their newly released income tax return for 2011. The couple gave more than $4 million to charity and had an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent.

See also:

• Mitt Romney and the Buffett Rule
• Wealthiest Presidential Candidates of 2012
• Why Romney Is Releasing Only 2 Years of Tax Returns

The campaign, which said it would release only two years' worth of tax returns, for 2010 and 2011, provided a summary of tax rates over two decades from the family's tax preparer, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

According to the document, from 1990 through 2009 the Romneys:

• Owed income taxes at both the state and federal levels;
• Had an average annual effective federal tax rate of 20.2 percent;
• Paid a minimum effective federal personal tax rate of 13.66 percent;
• Gave to charity an average of 13.45 percent of their adjusted gross income;
• Paid in federal and state taxes and contributed to charity 38.49 percent of their adjusted gross income.

The Romneys' 2011 tax return and summary of 20 years of tax rates refutes claims by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that the couple paid no taxes for 10 years - a claim that was based, Reid says, on a conversation he had with an investor with Bain Capital.

"During the 20-year period covered by the PWC letter, Gov. and Mrs. Romney paid 100 percent of the taxes that they owed," R. Bradford Malt, Mr. Romney's trustee, wrote on the campaign website.

Romney has said he has never paid less than a 13-percent effective tax rate, and his 2011 return shows the couple limited their deduction on charitable giving last year to live up to that claim.

"The Romneys' generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year," Malt wrote. "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."

Reid, who has been a persistent critic of Romney over his refusal to release more tax returns, raised questions about the level of deductions. "That raises the question: what else in those returns has Romney manipulated?" Reid said.

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