Mitt Romney says that tax rates are too high—so high that he wants to cut them. So why did he deliberately avoid deducting charitable contributions in his 2011 tax return in order to pay a higher effective tax rate?
The Romney campaign released a letter about the Romneys’ 2011 return on Friday, and says it plans to release the full return and a summary of previous years’ returns late Friday. The Romneys, who are most likely worth more than $200 million, paid a 14.1 percent effective tax rate in 2011, less than many Americans who aren’t nearly that wealthy. But they did so deliberately: The Romneys gave $4.1 million to charity, but only took a deduction of 2.5 million of that in order to make sure their tax rate stayed above 14 percent.
MORE: Romney: Taxes on the Wealthy Are So High I Paid Extra | Mother Jones.