I was just reading that. The conclusion is potentially misleading as Romney has up to five years to take the tax deduction for his charitable contribution.
He admits to over paying on his taxes to hit the target he said he’d hit. Since he can deduct the contributions in following years, I think it is some potentially pretty sneaky accounting.
article clip:
“Mr. Malt said the Romneys would have had an even lower tax burden if they’d claimed the full deduction for all of their charitable giving in 2011, but said they “limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the governor’s statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13 percent in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.”
When charitable contributions and federal and state taxes are combined, it amounted to 38.5 percent of the Romneys’ income, the trustee said.”
