Romney: I paid at least 13 percent to IRS

GREER, S.C., Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Thursday he "paid taxes every single year" for the past decade.

Romney, on the campaign trail in Greer, S.C., told reporters he has examined his tax returns over 10 years and found he paid at least 13 percent of his income to the IRS every year, The Washington Post reported. He has released the return filed in 2011, which shows he paid 13.9 percent on his 2010 income, and plans to release his 2012 return when it is available.

Romney is one of the richest men ever to run for the presidency, and his rivals in the Republican primaries demanded that he release more information on his taxes. Recently, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he had heard from an unnamed investor in Romney's former company, Bain Capital, that Romney had been able to use loopholes and tax shelters to pay no taxes during a 10-year period.

Romney suggested Reid is trying to distract voters from other issues.

"I just have to say, given the challenges that America faces -- 23 million people out of work, Iran about to become nuclear, one out of six Americans in poverty -- the fascination with taxes I've paid I find to be very small-minded compared to the broad issues that we face," he said.

Romney also said there is simply no truth to Reid's charge: "I did go back and look at my taxes and over the past 10 years I never paid less than 13 percent. I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that. So I paid taxes every single year."