Mitt Romney Finally Releases Tax Returns; Does He Pay Enough?
Former Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney finally released his tax returns on Tuesday, admitting that failing to do so was a "mistake." And now we know why he tried to keep them secret -- it can be argued that he is not paying his fair share.
In 2011 Romney made an estimated $20.9 million and will pay around $3.2 million in taxes. That may seem like a lot, but that is only a 15.4% tax rate.
2010 was even worse (or better, depending on your perspective) -- a 13.9% rate, paying $3 million on $21.65 in earnings.
Seven million dollars in charitable donations, including $4 million to his Mormon church, lowered Romney's taxable income.
Now it should be pointed out that Romney is not doing anything illegal; almost all of his earnings were from interest and dividends on his massive holdings, which are taxed at 15%. Income from regular wages -- the type of income earned from an actual job, which Romney does not have -- can be taxed as high as 35%.
In contrast, President Obama and Newt Gingrich, both of whom work for a living, paid tax rates of 26% and 31% respectively, reports the Miami Herald.
At Monday's debate Romney said his tax bill is "entirely legal and fair."
Yes, it certainly is legal -- no one is arguing that. But fair? Is it fair that Romney and other mega-rich people pay taxes at a lower rate than everybody else?
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How much of his income he pays in taxes isn't really his choice to make - when you have loads of money you either spend it or invest it, and you pay the tax rates the law requires based on what you've done with it. Regardless, it says nothing at all about Romney. If you're going to say anything negative about the man, you'd best make sure that what you're trying to criticize him for is actually something under his control. Since the tax laws are written by lobbyists and passed by congress, those are the the people who should be dealing with our ire over how much Romney pays in taxes.
His keeping money in Swiss banks that don't report account activity to the US government, making it much easier to hide things, does say something about him.
He's a multimillionaire son of a multimillionaire, so his earlier claims of having periods of worrying about losing his job just like the average American don't ring true with me. If you lose your job and you've got $25 million sitting in the bank, you're at far less risk of becoming homeless and/or starving to death or not being able to deal with a medical condition that arises than when you lose your job and you've only got 1/25,000 of that available to you. Of course, having a dad who could buy you a new car for each month of the year and see no noticeable change in his standard of living is a bonus, too - how many other Americans have one of those? Losing your job when your name is Romney doesn't pose any sort of threat to you at all. If losing your own job would result in almost zero negative consequences for you (one additional vacation home this summer, or two?), would that make you more or less hesitant to inflict it upon others? Especially when the $50k they were earning is such a small amount - you spend that much on meals every month? (this meals comment is a dramatization used to illustrate the point of relative value and is not intended to factually represent how much Romney spends on meals - I'm sure he only gets the best ramen and mac & cheese when he's not using the drive-thru at McFourSeasons)
It really doesn't matter. At least, it came to light that he has $100MM in accounts overseas...and he clearly is NOT part of the 99ers. He is a part of the 1%. Randy Johnson's story about how he fired hundreds of people and didn't create jobs, clearly damaged him and forced him to release his papers.
http://www.politickerny.com/2012/01/09/meet-randy-johnson-the-fired-bain-factory-employee-bird-dogging-mitt-romney/
Now, why did he shred all of his documents when he was governor of Massachusetts? The pattern here is that he flip flops, lies, hides and doesn't want to tell the American people the truth.
http://the-opinionated-fool.blogspot.com/2011/11/mitt-romney-flip-flops-is-this-who-you.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-usa-campaign-romney-computers-idUSTRE7B500X20111206
Who would vote for a candidate who is so secretive, we -- the voters -- can't see what he did while governor?????
Phew.....I was almost afraid to read the comments on this but I am encouraged to hear that people are not buying into what is nothing more than income redistribution which is the norm in a socialistic society. We must be very careful here or there will be no money to redistribute.
The disparity seems to be that if he was paid a wage of the same amount, his federal rate would be 35%. I make less than he was paid in speaking fees and I paid a marginal tax rate of over 30%.
Investment income tax rates are regressive as a component of the overall tax system. You have to have big bucks to build capital to live on investments, which means you pay less in taxes than someone who is middle class and works his butt off.
It is *NOT* fair, but it is not Romney's fault. Singling him out like he did something wrong is unfair. He didn't write the tax code and shouldn't be singled out.
Anyone who doesn't vote for Romney because of the tax issue isn't using good judgment. There's plenty of other reasons for not voting for him :p
As Romney said in Monday's debate he shouldn't have to apologize for being successful. That is the American Dream, to be successful at what you do, not doing as little as possible, or nothing at all and expecting the government to support you.
What I find as interesting is no one talks about how Barack Obama's favorite evil corporation, GE, has paid no taxes. How is that fair? And then there is Massachusetts' senior senator John Kerry, who still hasn't paid taxes on his luxury yacht,yet we hear nothing of that.
I am not a Romney fan, but as he also said in the debate, at least he has earned his money and it wasn't inherited, unlike so many of the liberal elitists in Washington today.
Fair? not really. But he invests his money wisely to where he pays less taxes. Kinda sucks for the rest of us, but he's fully in his rights to do so.
Romney pays at the same rate as everyone else. His income is simply more investment-based. You would prefer we discourage investment? Of course, why should people save money when the government can take care of them?
Yes, if they don't create jobs like THEY lead people to believe.
There's a difference between fair and equal. This article is a great example of unfairly biased opinion. He paid exactly what he owed and it was fair and just. It was according to the law. If we raise taxes on investments all we'll do is alienate investors. Sounds like a great idea during an economic downturn.
It would be nice if those so-called 'investors' actually created jobs. Since they don't or aren't...or are sending 3.1 million jobs overseas in order to keep their shareholder's bottom lines happy, then it doesn't work. Create the jobs, drive down unemployment, close the loopholes, and penalize people who send US jobs overseas under the guise of "investing".