Obama's Secretary paying more tax than him vindicates his stand on invoking 'Buffet Rule'

Washington, Apr 14 (ANI): By releasing his 2011 tax return, US president Barack Obama, has made an attempt to highlight the disproportionate structure of the US tax code that even sees his Secretary paying a higher tax rate than him.

According to the return published by the White House, Obama paid an effective tax rate of 20.5% on his total income of 789,674 dollars (498,000 pounds) in 2011. The reports claimed that half of it, reportedly came from his presidential salary, while the rest was from the sales of his books, the BBC reports.

Analysts have said that, Obama is keen on making wealthy Americans residing in US pay more tax and is also trying to denote that his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, is unconcerned about 'ordinary economic issues'.

Reports claimed that Romney, who is a wealthy businessman in the US, paid a lower rate of 15.4% in tax on an income of 20.9 million dollars in 2011, according to an estimate released by him, because the US tax system treats income from investments more favorably than wage earnings.

Interestingly, on the same day when Obama released his tax returns, Romney's campaigners claimed that their candidate had filed for an extension on his 2011 tax return.

Obama and his fellow Democrats have apparently demanded wealthy citizens of US t pay a "fair share", in their US Senate proposal, on the so-called "Buffett Rule", named after the billionaire investor Warren Buffett, under which all Americans earning above one million dollars will be liable to pay a tax of minimum 30 percent. (ANI)