Mitt Romney paid $1.95 million in federal income taxes on 2011?s investment income of $13.7 million, meaning his effective tax rate was 14.1 percent.
In 2010, Romney paid nearly $3 million in federal income taxes on his 2010 investment income of $21.7 million, meaning his effective tax rate was 13.9 percent.
Of course, the Republican presidential candidate’s tax rate for both years was pushed downwards by the amount he donated to charity.
Romney’s 2011 tax return shows charitable contributions totaling a little over $4 million, meaning he donated 30 percent of his income. Romney’s 2010 tax return shows charitable contribution of almost $3 million, meaning he donated about 11 percent of his income to charity.
And as for the 20-year summary of the GOP candidate’s tax returns his campaign released Friday, Romney donates on average 13.45 percent of his adjusted gross income to charity each year.
“That’s nearly twice the rate of President Obama, who according to his tax returns from 2000 through 2011 donated just less than 7 percent of his adjusted gross income to charities,” the
Washington Times notes.
One last thing: Romney’s 2011 tax return shows he claimed a deduction for only $2.25 of the $4 million he donated.
“The Romneys’ generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year,” the family’s trustee Brad Malt explains.
“The Romney‘s 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,” he adds.
Simply put, because Romney didn’t claim the full deduction his charitable donations entitled him to, he overpaid in taxes to the federal government.