As the race for a Republican candidate heats up, a new development in has only served to heighten political tensions between candidates. In the name of transparency, Mitt Romney’s tax returns were revealed to the public. According to a Jan. 24 article in The New York Times, Romney’s accumulated wealth was previously under question; but now these documents have revealed Romney will pay approximately 6.2 million dollars in taxes for 2010 and 2011. The amount being taxed is 45 million dollars, income Romney has garnered from 2010.
The comprehensive breakdown of Romney’s assets revealed wealth stored in Bermuda, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. Furthermore, his assets total almost a quarter of a billion dollars due to founding Bain Capital, a private equity firm. For such a large sum of money, Romney will pay approximately 14 percent in taxes, a rate lower than other Americans of similar wealth, as well as other middle class American taxpayers. Newt Gingrich, another Republican candidate, released his returns earlier in the campaign; the figures revealed he paid a much higher 31.7 percent of his income in taxes. President Obama paid approximately 26.3 percent.
What this information will do for Romney’s campaign is ambiguous. There will inevitably be much scrutiny over his lowered tax rate, an end product of savvy money management in offshore accounts. Perhaps the biggest fact in Romney’s favor is that none of his transactions are illegal. Mitt Romney has not always been a politician, so his business transactions cannot necessarily be scrutinized as underhanded. Furthermore, Romney must be commended for his charitable donations of 7 million dollars, of which 4.1 million went to the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-Day Saints.
There is no doubt that the unveiling of Romney’s tax returns will prompt criticism from his critics and his opponents. One can expect the files in question will be studied with every intention of finding fault in his financial choices. Nevertheless, after weeks of being asked to publish his tax returns, Romney finally yielded to demands and promoted transparency about himself and his background—an important trait that will be remembered in the coming months.
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