NY Times analysis of Mitt Romney’s talk returns reveals that he paid his taxes

Despite their “questions have been raised” headline about Romney’s taxes, the NY Times appears to have answered the questions and allegations posed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

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The presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s refusal to disclose more than his most recent two years of tax returns has spawned wide-ranging and sometimes far-fetched speculation from water coolers to talk shows.

This post joins a few tax experts who are “zeroing in on an esoteric corner of the tax code and pointing to some intriguing clues buried in the returns” Mr. Romney has already revealed.

Romney has insisted that his returns from 2010, and preliminary returns for 2011 are enough for voters to evaluate his fitness for office. But even though he has not released his returns from earlier years, the 2010 return indeed sheds some light on those years.

The GOP candidate paid income tax to foreign countries, and as result claimed in 2010 a $129,697 foreign tax credit, which he used to offset taxes he owed in the United States.

American taxpayers who claim the foreign tax credit are required to report their total foreign taxes paid and tax credits used for the previous 10 years. So that return contains foreign tax data going back to 2000.

This tax return suggests that he paid at least some federal income tax every year, as he has said he did.

He used the foreign tax credit every year to offset his taxes in the United States, and American taxpayers can’t use a tax credit if they owe no federal income tax.

This casts even more doubt on the claim by the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, attributed to an unnamed Bain Capital source, that Mr. Romney paid no income taxes during that time.