Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidGOP senators confident Trump pick to be confirmed by November Durbin: Democrats can 'slow' Supreme Court confirmation 'perhaps a matter of hours, maybe days at most' Supreme Court fight pushes Senate toward brink MORE (R-Nev.) doubled down on criticism of Mitt Romney's personal finances hours after the presumptive Republican nominee presented evidence that would seemingly undermine Reid's frequent charge that a "source" told him Romney had avoided paying federal income taxes.



In a release of documents Friday, the accounting firm responsible for preparing Romney's taxes affirmed that he had never paid less than 13 percent in effective federal income taxes since 1990.

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The Romney campaign later circulated a news report commenting that "it appears that Harry Reid’s infamous source alleging that Romney paid nothing in taxes for 10 years was wrong.”



But Reid seized on a quirk of Romney's 2011 taxes — one of only two years the candidate has fully documented — to argue that Romney could be "manipulating" the data.



“The information released today reveals that Mitt Romney manipulated one of the only two years of tax returns he's seen fit to show the American people — and then only to ‘conform’ with his public statements," Reid said. "That raises the question: what else in those returns has Romney manipulated?"



The Nevada lawmaker went on to ask when "the American people see the returns he filed before he was running for president."



"Governor Romney is showing us what he does when the public is looking," Reid said. "The true test of his character would be to show what he did when everyone was not looking at his taxes."



Romney paid more than he needed to in 2011 so as not to violate a statement he made on the campaign trail earlier this summer. The Romneys donated more than $4 million to charity in 2011 but only claimed deductions on $2.25 million of that amount.



"The Romneys’ generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year," said Romney trustee Brad Malt in a statement. "The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor's statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years."







At a press conference in the summer, Romney said that he "did go back and look at my taxes, and over the last 10 years, I’ve never paid less than 13 percent."

Ironically, Romney told ABC News in July that voters expected candidates to pay "only what the tax code requires." And during a primary debate in January, Romney said he paid "all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more."



“I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes," he continued.

