WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney's release of his 2011 tax return seemed unlikely to satisfy Democrats – including President Obama – intent on making the former business executive's wealth and tax history an issue. Within minutes of the release, the Obama campaign offered reporters 16 “key questions regarding Mitt Romney's tax returns.” Topics: Romney's offshore investments; his continuing ties to Bain Capital, the investment firm he started in 1984 and left in 2002; his charitable deductions; and the vague details Romney released about two decades' worth of returns. The release of Romney's returns bookends a week that opened with the release of a secretly recorded video of the GOP presidential candidate telling donors in May that the 47% of Americans who don't pay taxes would vote for President Obama “no matter what.” That same day, Romney's tax preparer, an accountant with the firm PwC LLP, finished his 2011 return and sent it to Romney and his wife to sign. The Romney campaign said the returns were signed Thursday then filed Friday morning. The campaign said that for 2011 taxes, Romney had reduced the deductions he was claiming for charitable donations in order to maintain his promise that he had not paid less than 13% in taxes for any recent year. He also released a notarized summary of returns dating back to 1990, prepared by his accountant, saying Romney never paid an effective rate of less than 13% during that time. Fred Slater, an accountant with the New York firm MS 1040 LLC, said that because Romney has not released actual tax forms for those years, it is impossible to know whether the conclusions of the tax accountant are accurate. “You are not showing us,” he said “ so some people will figure the worst.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was one such person, saying in a statement it's “galling to see the creative accounting Mitt Romney applied to his own tax returns only days after learning of his insulting comments that seniors, soldiers and hard-working parents don't pay enough taxes.” Reid entered the fray over Romney's taxes this summer when he claimed a Bain investor told him Romney “didn't pay any taxes for 10 years.” “Why does Mitt Romney not just release the full returns, instead of the bare summary he has provided of the last 20 years, so voters can make their own judgments about Mitt Romney's finances?” Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said in a statement. Romney has resisted those calls, despite a tradition of releasing multiple years of returns established by his father, Michigan governor George Romney, in 1967. “The fascination with taxes I paid I find to be very small-minded compared to the broad issues that we face,” Mitt Romney told reporters last month. Given the complexity of his returns, it's not unusual for Romney to file as late as October. IRS regulations allow for an automatic six-month extension – until October 15 – to file. Last year, according to IRS statistics, more than 10% of individual filers did so. The Romneys applied for the extension and paid all taxes due by April 15. — Agencies
