Why release an average figure way back to 1990? Because CG tax was 29% till 1997

[JDPriestly]

16. I did an exercise just for fun. It surely would not have much to do with his actual

tax returns.

But, if you take the tax rates applicable to Romney's earnings from 1992-2011, you have a total of 20 years. And if you assume a tax rate of 29% for the years from 1992-1997 and add 29% for six years, assume 21% for the years from 1998-2003 and add 21% for those six years, then assume 16% for the years from 2004-2011 and add 16% for those eight years, then divide the total you get (6x29 + 6x21 + 8x16), you get about 21.4%. That would be the minimum tax rate for a guy generally in his tax bracket. And Romney paid almost that much.

It is quite likely that Romney earned enough, even in the bad years, to have to pay the maximum tax rate for most of his income, so it is, in my view, quite likely that he always paid the minimum tax rate on most of his income.

Knowing is tax rate without knowing his annual income is pretty meaningless. What his statement about his tax rate does not show is how much his income was for each year, how much of his income is shielded from taxes in accounts in tax havens and whether there were years in which he declared no taxable income and therefore paid no taxes. In fact, considering he claims to have paid only 20.2% average in taxes, it is possible that there was a year in which he paid less than the maximum in taxes. That is because, had he paid the top rate for every year, he might have paid 21.4%.

The information Romney released is utterly useless.