Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - Wsj.com
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WASHINGTON—Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, paid an effective tax rate of 14.1% for 2011—roughly in line with other recent years—the campaign said in a blog post aimed at defusing criticism of the wealthy candidate.
The campaign also said that the full return for 2011 would be released around 3 p.m. EDT Friday. Previously the campaign had released an estimate of the Romneys' 2011 return.
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The return will show that the Romneys paid $1,935,708 in tax on income of $13,696,951 for 2011, most of it investment returns, the campaign said. Investment income often is subject to special low tax rates; the current top rate for capital gains and dividends is 15%. That helped the Romneys achieve their relatively low tax rate for 2011 and other years. Democrats have criticized the Romneys' tax rate as evidence that the well-to-do don't pay their fair share under current rules.
The Romneys' tax rate also was lowered by very large gifts to charity—more than $4 million in all, the campaign said. That resulted in a deduction of $2.25 million.
To reduce the impact of their substantial charitable gifts on their 2011 tax rate, the Romneys "limited their deduction of charitable contributions," the blog post said. That kept the rate in line with Mr. Romney's estimate in August that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years, said the blog post by Brad Malt, the trustee of Mr. Romney's blind trust.
