Rick Santorum Paid Higher Tax Rate Than Mitt Romney In 2010
EmailABC News’ Michael Falcone and Shushannah Walshe report:
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who frequently touts his humble roots as the grandson of a coal miner, earned an average of more than $900,000 each year between 2007 and 2010, according to the candidate’s tax returns released on Wednesday.
His adjusted gross income varied from about $659,000 in 2007 to more than $1.1 million in 2009. In 2010, Santorum earned $923,411.
According to the IRS-1040 forms released by the Santorum campaign, the former Pennsylvania senator paid an effective tax rate of roughly 28.5 percent in 2010.
That is a substantially higher rate than what Mitt Romney paid the same year, according to the former Massachusetts governor’s tax returns, which his campaign released in January.
In 2010, Romney made $21.7 million and paid nearly $3 million in taxes — an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent. Romney paid the lower rate because most of his earnings came from investments rather than wages.
“He had dividend income,” Santorum said of his rival in an interview with reporters in North Dakota on Wednesday night. “He had capital gain sincome which is taxed at 15 percent. I had ordinary income which got taxed at a higher rate.”
Santorum’s campaign released four years of returns on Wednesday, but sources close to the candidate said they do not plan to call on Romney to do the same. The disclosure comes at a time when both he and Romney are making a particularly strong appeal to Michigan’s working-class voters ahead of the state’s Feb. 28 primary.
Santorum paid $167,759 in federal income taxes in 2007, $262,082 in 2008, $276,523 in 2009 and $263,442 in 2010. His income was highest in 2009.
“I went out after having served in the Senate and had to go out and make money and hopefully with the hope of trying to be able to build some assets,” Santorum said. “It turned out that most of the assets I ended up building was paying down my mortgage on a house that went down in value.”
The returns show that Santorum and his wife, Karen, who are the parents of seven children, donated a smaller portion of their income to charity than the Romneys in 2010. That year, the Santorum’s made more than $16,000 in charitable contributions compared to more than $3 million for the Romneys.
Newt Gingrich, who released his 2010 tax returns in January, paid an effective tax rate of 31 percent on the $3.1 million he made.
All four years of Santorum’s tax returns indicate they were “self prepared.” The tax forms were first posted by Politico and their authenticity was confirmed to ABC News by the Santorum campaign.
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If the man is not bright enough to save his own money why should we let him play with ours?
Posted by: Louis Lawson | February 15, 2012, 11:38 pm 11:38 pm
When told of this, Romney replied, ” Well, I guess Rick needs a better tax attorney, or a Swiss bank account and put the rest in the Cayman Islands ! No reason in the world, he should be paying more than 15%.”
Posted by: malibu jim | February 16, 2012, 12:10 am 12:10 am
He paid more because he made less and that’s what’s wrong.
Posted by: Nd | February 16, 2012, 12:36 am 12:36 am
Nice headline. More media bias from ABC. Using Obama’s tax rate theme. Marching orders directly from Axelrod.
Posted by: Media BIAS | February 16, 2012, 1:09 am 1:09 am
Noticed Mitt gave 13.8% to charity. Rick gave 1.7%. Don’t know what Newt gave. Biden only give a couple of hundred bucks didn’t he? Cheap! Cheap! Haha!
Posted by: AZhombre | February 16, 2012, 1:25 am 1:25 am
So both Romney and Santorum paid what the law allocated them to pay. In other words, both men obeyed the law. Was it a slow news day or something??????
Posted by: jjj | February 16, 2012, 1:28 am 1:28 am
“Rick Santorum Paid Higher Tax Rate Than Mitt Romney In 2010…”
Hell, Warren Buffet paid a higher tax rate than Mitt Romney!
Posted by: MsKae | February 16, 2012, 2:04 am 2:04 am
Let’s not forget that Romney gave $3 million in tax-deductible charitable donations. Also, that 15% capital gains rate is after paying corporate taxes that are the second highest in the world. The important fact is he paid all the taxes he owed. He understands how the free enterprise system works–a trait a president needs, and our current president lacks.
Posted by: free_2_choose | February 16, 2012, 2:22 am 2:22 am
I think its funny how Santorum waves the red, white and blue, but most of the money he make is from Excelsior LLC, a Russian company, that does most of its work for the Russian Space Agency. Who’s side is he really on.
Posted by: AndyF | February 16, 2012, 3:58 am 3:58 am
AndyF: Obama rejected an oil pipeline from Canada that would have created a thousands of American jobs and energy security.Now it looks like China is going to get the pipeline and the oil. Whose side is Obama on?
Posted by: jjj | February 16, 2012, 5:40 am 5:40 am
FLASH: Dog bites man. That’s about where this story lands. Our current tax laws allow people like Romney to pay a lower tax rate on their “income”. Exactly what the GOP demanded many years ago. Actually, they would prefer eliminating it altogether. How would THAT go over these days? ABC: With stories like this, you are really showing your left-leaning bias. I half expected the byline to be Stephanopoulos on this one.
Posted by: Bob | February 16, 2012, 6:28 am 6:28 am
The real issue people should be asking about is how much lobbying effort does $750,000.00 get you. He’s a lobbyist from C**** sake! He’s part of the same old boys club that has been milking us for years. Santorum is in it just for himself …People have got to wake up and see through his lies and distortions…he’s is the typical Washinton Insider!
Posted by: Insider | February 16, 2012, 6:29 am 6:29 am
___”Noticed Mitt gave 13.8% to charity. Rick gave 1.7%. Don’t know what Newt gave. Biden only give a couple of hundred bucks didn’t he? Cheap! Cheap! Haha!”
POSTED BY: AZHOMBRE | FEBRUARY 16, 2012, 1:25 AM 1:25 AM____________How much did you give?
Posted by: NoFlyZone2 | February 16, 2012, 7:14 am 7:14 am
Santorum pays more because his taxes are based on the salary he earns. Romney is not paid a salary, he pays taxes on the dividends he earns from investments. Capital gains from investments are taxed at a lower tax rate. Its not Romneys fault that the IRS sets the percentages for different incomes. Its not illegal so let it go.
Posted by: Bob | February 16, 2012, 7:14 am 7:14 am
___”So both Romney and Santorum paid what the law allocated them to pay. In other words, both men obeyed the law. Was it a slow news day or something??????”
POSTED BY: JJJ | FEBRUARY 16, 2012, 1:28 AM 1:28 AM_____________To whom did Romney pay his taxes—the Cayman Islanders?
Posted by: NoFlyZone2 | February 16, 2012, 7:17 am 7:17 am
Santorums income was wages and Romney’s was investments. 2 completely different tax rates and apples and oranges. C’mon ABC News, is this really news?
Posted by: commonsenseparty | February 16, 2012, 7:21 am 7:21 am
Santorum pays more because his taxes are based on the salary he earns. Romney is not paid a salary, he pays taxes on the dividends he earns from investments. Capital gains from investments are taxed at a lower tax rate. Its not Romneys fault that the IRS sets the percentages for different incomes. Its not illegal so let it go.
POSTED BY: BOB | FEBRUARY 16, 2012, 7:14 AM 7:14 AM___________So, how do you explain the possibility that investment guru, Warren Buffet, may be paying more than Mitt Romney?
Posted by: NoFlyZone2 | February 16, 2012, 7:21 am 7:21 am
Don’t forget that Santorum just did his 2010 taxes – any points he tries to get for not claiming all of his deductions or just paying his “fair share” is pretty hollow since he has a political motive to maximize his rate.
But this issue is still nothing more than a distraction.
Posted by: tea412 | February 16, 2012, 7:32 am 7:32 am
This is a straw man argument by the left. The article does mention that Romney paid a “capitol gains” tax rate while Santorum paid an “income” tax rate, but the left continues to use this argument. Why? Because most Americans have some sort of savings, whether in savings accounts or IRA accounts or just investment accounts. We pay taxes on our payroll income, then we invest and hopefully see a profit, which is taxed again but at a lower rate, since we already paid the taxes on that money. The left would have us pay more on the capitol gains so they’ll have more tax revenue for their pet projects. Wise up folks, they are after your money and they will use deceit and lies to get it from you.
Posted by: A Fotia | February 16, 2012, 7:37 am 7:37 am
Gotta love a pol who does his own taxes
Posted by: datechguy | February 16, 2012, 8:56 am 8:56 am
OK he paid more because Mitt Romeny was paying on capital gains and not earned income. If Santorum had made his money primarily on investment his rate would have been similar.
Posted by: CrushTheLeft | February 16, 2012, 8:58 am 8:58 am
Has Ron Paul released his taxes yet?
Posted by: A Cynic | February 16, 2012, 10:21 am 10:21 am
Agree with others on this site … if Santorum … who makes more than I do … cannot manage his own finances and understand the tax code enough to minimize his taxes … no way can this career politician manage our country’s budget and get us out of this financial mess his fellow career politicians got us into or were too clueless to avoid. We need some savvy business men to get us out of this financial mess and to avoid any future ones … I don’t trust career politicians with no private sector experience to help us … I see only Romney and Paul as the only two non career politicians savvy enough to know how to get us out of this mess.
Posted by: JakeS | February 16, 2012, 10:33 am 10:33 am
This is a bunch of malarkey romney has already paid taxes once on the same income that he is getting dividends on and then he paid taxes again on the dividends. Some people need to know how the tax system works in this country. Santorum has the same opportunity to create businesses
And capital and invest money. But he chose to collect a government check each month.
Posted by: Bill Perkins | February 16, 2012, 10:39 am 10:39 am