Romney says no to Obama offer for 5 years of tax returns

“If he releases five years of tax returns, Obamas team wont criticize him for not releasing any more.”The answer came quickly: No.The multimillionaire Romney has been under pressure to show how much he pays in taxes as economic issues and the growing gap in the U.S. between the rich and poor dominate a tight race toward the November election.Releasing several years of tax returns has become a standard in recent presidential elections, but Romney has said his critics would distort the tax information and use it against him.Campaign manager Jim Messina made the offer to Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades in a letter Friday. Messina said he is taking the step because Romney apparently fears the more he offers, the more our campaign will demand that he provide.The Romney campaign rejected the offer.It is clear that President Obama wants nothing more than to talk about Gov. Romneys tax returns instead of the issues that matter to voters, said Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades.Led by Obama, the Democrats are also going after Romney for seeking to protect tax cuts for the wealthy, with hopes of luring pivotal support from middle-class voters.Romney released his 2010 taxes and plans to release his 2011 returns. Messina says he wants Romney to provide three more years of returns.Obamas campaign has questioned whether there are years when Romney paid no taxes. Romney said Thursday he has paid at least 13 percent of his income in federal taxes every year for the past decade.I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that. So I paid taxes every single year, Romney told reporters.Aides later said Romney meant to say 13.9 percent, the amount he already disclosed for his 2010 federal return.On average, middle-income families, those making from $50,000 to $75,000 a year, pay 12.8 percent of their income in federal taxes, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.In 2010 and 2011, Romney made about $21 million a year.Romney is able to keep his tax rate low because most of his income is from investments, which are generally taxed at a lower rate than wages. That type of legal tax figuring is something Obama has proposed changing.Romneys stance is markedly different from that of his father, George Romney, who released 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president in 1968.Romney has said he is following the example of Republican Sen. John McCain, who released two years worth of returns in 2008 when running against Obama.A Pew Research Center Poll released last month showed 44 percent of Americans believe raising taxes on the wealthiest would help the economy, not hurt it. Just 22 percent believe the opposite. The same poll showed that Americans believe 2-to-1 that Obamas tax proposals would make the tax system more fair, not less.