Mitt Romney's claim that 47 percent of Americans don't pay taxes: True or false?

The Republican says nearly half of the U.S. doesn't pay federal income taxes, a common conservative complaint that glosses over several relevant details

Mitt Romney campaigns in Iowa in early 2012
(Image credit: Dennis Van Tine/Retna Ltd./Corbis)

Mitt Romney is facing a potential campaign killer this week, after Mother Jones posted a surreptitiously filmed video of a private fundraiser in which the GOP standard-bearer belittles the 47 percent of Americans who will allegedly vote for President Obama "no matter what." These members of the electorate, Romney claimed at the May event, pay no federal income taxes, and have grown too "dependent on government." My job, the Republican nominee for president said, "is not to worry about those people." In invoking the 47 percent figure, Romney was repeating a conservative trope that has often been hoisted as evidence of the expansion of the welfare state, and once even inspired a short-lived "53 percent movement." But is it true? Here, a guide to the claim that nearly half of Americans don't pay federal income taxes:

Is Romney's claim true or false?

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