We thought this day would never come.
After months of dodging, Mitt Romney finally released his 2011 tax return Friday afternoon... but by his own standards, the tax return rate disqualifies him from the presidency.
Turns out Romney paid $250,000 more than he legally needed to last year, entirely for political reasons.
(more after the break)
Romney's blind trust trustee, R. Bradford Malt, said Romney artificially kept his marginal rate above 13 percent -- the rate below which he says he has never paid -- by not reporting nearly half his charitable giving.The move seemed to contradict Romney's earlier position on the subject of tax payments.
"I don't pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become president," he said in July of this year.
No arguments here, Mitt.
What Romney did was purposely overpay his taxes in order to artificially inflate his effective tax rate to reach the 13.9% rate he's been claiming he paid in multiple interviews.
The takeaway: Romney overpaid his 2011 taxes so his rate wouldn't look as incredibly low as it is. But that artificial rate is STILL lower than many middle class workers - i.e. the "47 percent" - pay.
Of course, our elected leaders (and aspiring leaders) should be fighting to make sure everyone pays their fair share, but not only when they're trying to pull a fast one.
