Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Poll Watch: Rasmussen (R) Survey on Mitt Romney's Tax Returns

Rasmussen (R) Poll on Mitt Romney's Tax Returns

Romney has released his tax returns for 2010 and 2011. Is that enough or should he release more of his tax returns from earlier years?
  • Enough 46%
  • Release more 46%
Note: Seventy-four percent (74%) of Republicans say Romney has released enough; 75% of Democrats think he needs to release more. A plurality (49%) of voters not affiliated with either party believes Romney’s release of his 2010 and 2011 returns is enough.

In terms of how you will vote, how important is it whether or not Romney releases tax returns from earlier years?
  • Very important 22%
  • Somewhat important 13%
  • Not very important 26%
  • Not at all important 37%
Note: Fifty-five percent (55%) of voters in President Obama’s party consider Romney’s release of his older tax returns to be important to their vote. Eighty percent (80%) of Republicans – and 67% of unaffiliated voters – do not. When he first ran for the White House in 2008, Obama made public his tax returns back to the year 2000.

In general, how far back should presidential candidates go in releasing their tax returns? Should they provide tax returns for the most recent year, the most recent two years, three to five years, five to 10 years or should they release every tax return they ever filed?
  • Release tax returns for the most recent year 6%
  • Release tax returns for most recent two years 29%
  • Release tax returns for most recent three to five years 29%
  • Release tax returns for most recent five to ten years 21%
  • Release every tax return ever filed 10%
Romney has refused to release tax returns prior to 2010. How likely is it that Mitt Romney is hiding something of significance in his past tax returns?
  • Very likely 36%
  • Somewhat likely 14%
  • Not very likely 22%
  • Not at all likely 22%
Note: Eighty-two percent (82%) of Democrats think it’s likely that Romney is hiding something of significance in his older tax returns. Just 23% of GOP voters and 42% of unaffiliated voters agree.

National survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted July 23-24, 2012. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted May 18-19, 2012 are in parentheses.

Inside the numbers:
Sixty-eight percent (68%) of voters are following news reports about Romney’s tax returns, with 34% who are following very closely. Democrats are more interested in the story than Republicans and unaffiliateds.

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