Romney to Release 2011 Tax Returns in October
Mitt Romney's campaign said Sunday that the Republican presidential challenger will release his complete 2011 tax return by Oct. 15, which will be his final disclosure. Romney has already released 2010 tax returns amid accusations by Democrats that he had not paid taxes for years.
Senior Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said on "Fox News Sunday" that the GOP presidential candidate would release the 2011 return by Oct. 15, weeks before the Nov. 6 election.
In April, Romney requested an extension from the Internal Revenue Service to file his 2011 tax forms, while estimating his tax liability at $3.2 million for last year, according to Reuters.
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"Look, October 15 is the deadline for the IRS on an extension," Gillespie said. "We have said as soon as they're ready we're going to release them. And I believe they'll be ready before that."
The returns are being finalized, the Romney adviser added. "There's a lot of forms that have to come in from other entities that the governor doesn't have control over."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently claimed that an anonymous investor with Romney's former private equity firm Bain Capital told him on phone that the former Massachusetts governor had not paid taxes for a decade.
Reid repeated the allegation later on the Senate floor. "The word's out that he hasn't paid any taxes for 10 years," he said. "Let him prove he has paid taxes because he hasn't."
Gillespie assured Sunday that there will be "ample information" about Romney's taxes with the disclosure of the 2010 return and the planned release of the 2011 return.
President Barack Obama's campaign said Friday Romney should release five years of returns.
Romney had earlier released personal income tax returns for 2010, and said his accountants were preparing the 2011 returns. However, Romney also said he would not want to release tax returns beyond 2010 and 2011 lest Democrats "distorted it."
Romney has said Reid and other Democrats are trying to "deflect the fact that jobs numbers are bad, that Americans are out of work, and you are trying to throw anything up on the screen that will grab attention away from the fact that the policies of the White House haven't worked to put Americans back to work."
Gillespie repeated that on Sunday, saying, "It wasn't an issue in 2008 because President Obama wasn't trying to distract from a four-year-long record of failed policies."
Romney has said Reid's source for the disputed information that he had not paid taxes for years could be from the White House or Obama's re-election campaign.
READ: FORGET ROMNEY'S TAX RETURNS - GO FIND BARACK OBAMA'S HONESTY AND COMPASSION
