Romney's tax sham | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Mitt Romney just filed his 2011 tax return. Nothing wrong with that; many take an extension to file, especially rich people with complicated returns.

Few people, however, work hard to jigger their return so they'll pay more income tax, as Romney did to keep his tax rate at 14 percent instead of the 10 percent it would have been had he claimed all of the $2.6 million he paid in tithing.

Most of us spend late hours figuring how to pay less. I agreed with Romney when last summer he said: "I don't pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become president."

So what changed? Obviously, paying only a tithe in income tax looks bad when people with a whole lot less pay a whole lot more.

But it's all a sham. After the election he can file an amended return and deduct the extra $1.6 million.

It's the phoniness, the trying to fool the people, the being on one side of an issue before being on the other side, that makes the chameleon man unfit for the presidency.

Jonathan Emery

Park City