Compared to a peer group of U.S. presidents, Republican presidential
nominee Mitt Romney’s effective tax rate is the lowest since Richard
Nixon who started the tradition of presidents disclosing their federal
income tax returns, according to Tax Analysts.
“Romney’s really an outlier,” says Joseph J. Thorndike, director of the Tax Analysts Tax History Project. “The only presidents who come remotely close are Clinton and Bush 1, but 6 percentage points is a pretty big difference in this world.”
Romney’s rate isn’t low just by comparison with President Barack Obama, but it’s also low compared with every president of the last 40 years, Thorndike concludes. “If he wins his race for the White House — and continues to file tax returns that look like the ones released during the campaign — President Romney will have only Richard Nixon to keep him company at the bottom of the rate roster,” Thorndike writes in his article, “Romney’s Tax Rate Lower Than Any President’s Since Nixon.”
Thorndike uses the method adopted by Romney to draw comparisons: total taxes owed divided by adjusted gross income. Romney says he paid an average tax of 20.2% over the past two decades and just 14.1% in 2011 and 13.9% in 2010. That gives Romney an average of 14.02% over those two years.
By contrast, Thorndike calculates, President Obama’s average effective tax rate has been 26.45 percent during his presidency, and 23.4% during 2010 and 2011.
In descending order, here are the average rates for past presidents:
37.82% Gerald Ford
32.37% Ronald Reagan
31.62% Jimmy Carter
27.17% George W. Bush
20.15% Bill Clinton
19.86% George H. W. Bush
6.10% Richard Nixon
Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleaebeling/2012/09/26/how-romneys-tax-rate-compares-to-past-presidents/
“Romney’s really an outlier,” says Joseph J. Thorndike, director of the Tax Analysts Tax History Project. “The only presidents who come remotely close are Clinton and Bush 1, but 6 percentage points is a pretty big difference in this world.”
Romney’s rate isn’t low just by comparison with President Barack Obama, but it’s also low compared with every president of the last 40 years, Thorndike concludes. “If he wins his race for the White House — and continues to file tax returns that look like the ones released during the campaign — President Romney will have only Richard Nixon to keep him company at the bottom of the rate roster,” Thorndike writes in his article, “Romney’s Tax Rate Lower Than Any President’s Since Nixon.”
Thorndike uses the method adopted by Romney to draw comparisons: total taxes owed divided by adjusted gross income. Romney says he paid an average tax of 20.2% over the past two decades and just 14.1% in 2011 and 13.9% in 2010. That gives Romney an average of 14.02% over those two years.
By contrast, Thorndike calculates, President Obama’s average effective tax rate has been 26.45 percent during his presidency, and 23.4% during 2010 and 2011.
In descending order, here are the average rates for past presidents:
37.82% Gerald Ford
32.37% Ronald Reagan
31.62% Jimmy Carter
27.17% George W. Bush
20.15% Bill Clinton
19.86% George H. W. Bush
6.10% Richard Nixon
Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleaebeling/2012/09/26/how-romneys-tax-rate-compares-to-past-presidents/
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