(MONEY Magazine) – Now, here's the deal. Ross Perot may have suffered a setback in his effort to block the North American Free Trade Agreement, but he's still ahead of the game when it comes to taxes. -Perot's 1993 tax bill will be just 8.5% of his estimated $230 million gross income, or $19.5 million, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based tax reform lobby group. True, that's $3.7 million more than the Texas billionaire paid the year before -- thanks to the new 39.6% marginal rate on high-income filers. But Perot's 8.5% tax liability is well below the 11% that the average American household pays on a gross income of $40,000, which is less than one-five-thousandth of Perot's earnings. How does he do it? Citizens for Tax Justice, which based its analysis on financial records Perot filed during the 1992 presidential campaign, says that nearly 90% of his assets are in tax-free municipal bonds spread across 44 states, tax-sheltered real estate and stocks with unrealized gains. Moreover, Perot doesn't have to come up with that extra $3.7 million in taxes by April. Like others nicked by the '93 law, he can choose to pay it in equal amounts over the next three years without interest or penalty. -- E.M.M.