Mitt Romney put out his tax returns last week. Previously, the left complained about Romney’s failure to release this information, but now that he has, his tax returns are being distorted and used against him.

Regarding Romney’s tax returns, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said, “The information released today reveals that Mitt Romney manipulated one of the only two years of tax returns he’s seen fit to show the American people.”

Reid also said, “What we don’t know is why (Romney) refuses to be straight with the American people about the choices he’s made in his financial life.” Ironically, Reid’s response is the exact reason Romney was hesitant to release his tax information.

Romney’s “financial life” is none of Reid’s business, and Romney likely knew that being “straight with the American people” would cause some liberal to crawl out from under a rock and say “Romney manipulated one of the only two years of tax returns he’s seen fit to show the American people.”

But Reid’s obsession with Romney’s taxes is nothing new. Before Romney revealed his tax data, Reid said, “The word is out that (Romney) has not paid any taxes for ten years. Let him prove he has paid taxes, because he has not.”

Romney has now given proof, but Reid has not apologized for being wrong.

Here are the numbers: Romney’s effective federal tax rate was 20.2 percent between the years 1990 and 2009, according to Romney’s tax accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 2011, Romney paid $1.95 million in taxes on an income of $13.7 million, which made his 2011 effective federal tax rate 14.1 percent, according to his accountants.

One of Reid’s new claims is “manipulation.” Reid argues that Romney’s accountants deducted only half of Romney’s charitable giving in 2011, which increased his effective federal tax rate.

For sure, Romney and his accountants targeted the 14.1 percent figure to match Romney’s rhetoric, or in the words of Romney’s accountants, “The Romneys … limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor’s statement in August.”

In August, Romney claimed to have always paid more than 13 percent of his income in taxes, and he took the needed action to make good on his claim. Reid, on the other hand, cannot make good on his.

Reid’s term, “manipulation,” is not accurate regarding Romney’s tax returns. Manipulation generally means “to manage or influence skillfully, especially in an unfair manner.”

Romney and his accountants have managed his finances skillfully, but they have not done so in an unfair manner. In 2011, Romney gave away $4 million, which is nearly 30 percent of his income. He also paid 14.1 percent of his income to the federal government, and assuming Romney’s historical average effective state tax rate is accurate for this year, Romney paid an additional 8.3 percent of his income to Massachusetts.

In other words, Romney gave more money to the federal government than required, paid his state taxes and then donated more than double the amount of his federal tax bill to charity.

In total, after federal taxes, state taxes and donations, Romney kept only 47.6 percent of his 2011 income.

Reid is the true manipulator because slandering Romney with this information misleads public opinion unfairly.

Michael Stikkel is a junior computer engineering major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at mcstikke@syr.edu.

 

Published on September 26, 2012 at 1:00 am