Tax returns show Mitt Romney made over $42 million from investments in past two years

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Republican Mitt Romney’s tax returns show he had over $42 million in income during the past two years, not from wages but from investing the millions he made during the business career he now argues makes him the most qualified 2012 candidate for president.

The Washington Post reported the figure early today, after being provided with an early look at 2010 and 2011 tax returns the Romney campaign planned to release and discuss with other reporters at 8:30 a.m.

The voluminous documents show Romney and his wife, Ann, gave away more to charity during the same two-year span than they paid to the IRS in federal income taxes.

The Romneys made $7 million worth charitable contributions during the past two years, including at least $4.1 million to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly called the Mormon Church.

The couple paid an estimated $6.2 million in federal income taxes during that same span.

The Post said that in his 2010 tax return, Romney paid about $3 million to the IRS, for an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent.

“For 2011, Romney estimates that he will pay about $3.2 million, for an effective rate of 15.4 percent. That’s in line with his earlier estimates, but sharply lower than the rates paid by President Obama and Romney’s closest Republican rival, Newt Gingrich,” the Post reported.

The documents tally almost 550 pages, including a 2010 return than exceeds 200 pages.

That heft speaks to Romney’s status as one of the country’s richest candidates ever for the presidency.

Romney has a fortune estimated at between $190 million and $250 million from his tenure leading Bain Capital LLC, a Boston-based private equity and venture capital firm.

“Pages and pages are devoted to foreign entities in which Romney is invested. Many are located in places like Luxembourg, Ireland, and the Cayman Islands, all famous tax havens. None shows much income,” said the Post.

The release marked the first time in a political career stretching back to a 1994 US Senate campaign that Romney had made his personal tax returns public.