Poor Willard. He released his tax returns, and we knew for sure what we thought all along-the great patriot Rushpubliscum “job creator” is a tax dodger who pays far less in taxes than those people that Bain Capital unemployed get taken out of their measly unemployment compensation checks. Like most Rushpubliscums, he just LOOOVES his country, until you ask him to actually DO something for it.

But there’s another story getting lost in all the headlines about Willard. And that story is of the guy who has done everything he can to put the spotlight on Willard’s refusal to release his tax returns. Yeah, Newt has undoubtedly scored a few points with his denunciation of Willard. But Newt, perhaps more than anyone, should know that what goes around, comes around.

And there is plenty to come around, in Newt’s case.

Newt Gingrich avoided tens of thousands of dollars in Medicare payroll taxes in 2010 by using a technique the Internal Revenue Service has consistently and successfully attacked.  Republican Presidential candidate Gingrich and his wife, Callista, treated only $444,327 of what they got from Gingrich Holdings. Inc. and Gingrich Productions as compensation to them, while reporting a whopping $2.4 million of their earnings from these corporations as profits or dividends. Medicare taxes are levied at a rate of 2.9% on an unlimited amount of compensation and self-employment income (say, from a consulting contract, speeches or a book) but not on profits from a business.

“It appears that he is not paying his fair share of Medicare tax,’’ Robert E. McKenzie, a partner in the Chicago law firm of Arnstein & Lehr LLP concluded, in an email to Forbes, after reviewing Gingrich’s 2010 tax return. McKenzie, a past chairman of the Employment Tax Committee of the American Bar Association Tax Section and a member of the IRS’ Advisory Council, added:  “There are a multitude of cases where the IRS has successfully challenged the improper tax strategy of this candidate and his accountants. Service businesses are only allowed to distribute a fair return on investment from an S corp. as profits exempt from Medicare taxes. The remainder of profits must be paid as salary subject to a 2.9% Medicare tax levy.”

Since Gingrich released his 2010 tax return Thursday night during the Republican debate, news coverage has focused on his hefty income tax rate—he paid tax equal to 31.5% of his adjusted gross income of $3.14 million. By contrast, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who earned a fortune at Bain Capital and gets most  of his income from investments, acknowledged last week that he pays closer to 15%. (Romney, still smarting from his South Carolina loss Saturday to former House Speaker Gingrich, said on Fox News this morning that his unreleased returns had become a “distraction” and that he will release his 2010 return on Tuesday.)

The issue of Gingrich’s Medicare tax, however, has started to attract notice from tax pros like McKenzie. The IRS says on its web site that distributions to an S corp. owner should be treated as compensation to the extent they are associated with his personal services or services to the firm. Earnings that come from an investment of capital and equipment, or from the work of others, can be treated as profit.  On his July 2011 financial disclosure form, Gingrich valued his holdings in Gingrich Productions at between $500,000 and $1 million, suggesting he has far too little capital invested in the firm to justify booking $2.4 million as profit.  On Gingrich Productions’ web site, there is no suggestion it profits from the work of anyone other than the Gingriches. The site says: “Together, Newt and Callista host and produce historical and public policy documentaries, write books and newsletters, give speeches, record audio books, produce photographic essays, and make television and radio appearances.”  (From public filings, it appears that Gingrich Holdings Inc.  changed its name to Gingrich Productions last year.)

Neither a Gingrich spokesman nor his accountant returned requests for comment.

Smearing someone else for doing EXACTLY what he is doing is familiar territory for Newt. After all, he was banging former Congressional aide Callista “Crazy Eyes” Bisek (unbeknownst to his wife of the time) while he was leading the charge to impeach President Clinton for…. banging a White house intern. So anytime that we hear Newt hollering about something someone else is doing, we have to start looking at what Newt, himself, might be up to.

And it usually doesn’t take us very long to find out what Newt is doing. After all, we only need to listen to his accusations.