Here’s some free advice for Mitt Romney: Release your income tax returns now. Right now. Don’t wait “until April” as you’ve said in the past, or give a vague estimate of your effective tax rate, as you did earlier today. Do it now so you can address facts, instead of conjecture and speculation.
According to a New York Times report, you rather awkwardly said your tax rate is “probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything. Because my last 10 years, I’ve — my income comes overwhelmingly from investments made in the past, rather than ordinary income, or rather than earned annual income.” Oh boy. That’s not very helpful.
So release the returns and deal with the issues now, while you’re in a position of strength and there’s plenty of time for whatever negative impact they might have to dissipate.