On Friday, as Kevin and Guy both noted, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney released his 2011 tax returns to the American public. Not only did we learn that the former Massachusetts governor paid taxes every single year since 1990, thus discrediting the Senate Majority Leader’s preposterous accusations, but he also paid $2 million in taxes last year alone and gave about $4 million (or nearly 30% of his annual income) to charity. In any case, now that we have these new figures, which presidential candidate paid the highest tax rate and gave the most to charity in 2011? Over to you, Yahoo! News:
Tax rates and charitable giving in 2011President Barack Obama:
Income: $790,000
Federal taxes: $162,000
Tax rate: 20.5 percent
Charitable donations: $172,000
Percentage of income: 22 percent
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney:
Income: $13.7 million
Federal taxes: $1.94 million
Tax rate: 14.1 percent
Charitable donations: $4 million
Percentage of income: 29.35 percent
Vice President Joe Biden:
Income: $379,178
Federal taxes: $87,900
Tax rate: 23 percent
Charitable donations: $5,500
Percentage of income: 1.46 percent
Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan:
Income: $323,416
Federal taxes: $64,764
Tax rate: 20 percent
Charitable donations: $12,991
Percentage of income: 4 percent
President Obama maintains that “the rich” aren’t paying their fair share in taxes -- and perhaps he’s correct -- even though a supermajority fundamentally disagree with his definition of fairness. But this much is clear: Mitt Romney gave substantially more money to charity (as a percentage of his income) than the president did last year. The former governor may be a lot of things -- but greedy just isn't one of them.
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