Mitt Romney's 15% tax rate is based largely on unearned income (capital gains). Do you know what unearned means? He made that money sitting on his ass, largely from his Daddy's hand me down cash.
As such, he (perfectly legally) was able to take advantage of the current tax code that taxes such income at the capital gains tax rate.
Comparing that in equal terms to general earned income tax rates, is not only incomparable for most working people, it's pretty de able.
This is the part where all the conservatives on the board say "That's his money" (also known as the baby-boomer motto)
Well, if that's the case, he sure liked to get bailed out with his use of bankruptcy at the cost of everyone else.
all his income now is passive income
wages and all deferred to stock options
rich ppl have access to smart accountants and investors to launder their money into dodgey tax schemes to minimise tax...too bad the avg joe does not have access to such schemes cause they cant afford the fees....
Really? They're running for POTUS. Public scrutiny is part of the process. They don't have to provide more than whatever the law indicates, but the requests are certainly going to be there.
I said I would pray for God to smite you. You really thought ha was serious?
So you think Romney made around $123,100 in 2010?
Are you just playing dumb? I sure hope so. Of course I don't think he only made that much. As pointed out by others, his earnings weren't normal income. Most of it falls under capital gains rather than the normal income tax tables.
Romney Invests In Several Bain Funds That Use Offshore Tax Havens To Boost Profits
As Reuters noted, those returns “could shed light on how Romney and Bain use offshore strategies to avoid taxes.” In fact, ABC News reported today that Romney has millions of dollars parked in several Bain funds that are set up in tax shelters in order to help their investors avoid U.S. taxes:
Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven…As one of the wealthiest candidates to run for president in recent times, Romney has used a variety of techniques to help minimize the taxes on his estimated $250 million fortune. In addition to paying the lower tax rate on his investment income, Romney has as much as $8 million invested in at least 12 funds listed on a Cayman Islands registry. Another investment, which Romney reports as being worth between $5 million and $25 million, shows up on securities records as having been domiciled in the Caymans.
they convey a host of advantages to Bain and Romney, including “higher management fees and greater foreign interest” from investors looking to avoid U.S. taxes. As the Washington Post’s Suzy Khimm noted, “just one of these offshore-linked funds — Bain Capital Fund VIII, based in the Cayman Islands — generated $1 million for the Romneys in 2010.”
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/201...re-tax-havens/
======
Not quite the "patriot" his father was, who actually built stuff and paid his taxes.
Just another 1%er s bag.
This will all be over soon and Obama has some serious work cut out for him.
Romney Riches Are Being Seen as New Hurdle
With a fortune estimated to be as large as a quarter of a billion dollars, Mitt Romney is among the wealthiest men ever to run for president.
But attacks from Democrats and Republicans over his career in the leveraged buyout business and his reluctance to release his tax returns have underscored another central fact about Mr. Romney: The wealth that has helped underwrite his career in politics remains shrouded in considerable secrecy, which now poses a major political risk on the campaign trail.
Mr. Romney’s finances are complex and far-flung. He and his wife, Ann, have reported holdings in dozens of publicly traded companies, mutual funds and high-end investment partnerships, with much of their family wealth held in blind trusts that conceal their full size from public view. And Mr. Romney’s disclosure on Tuesday that he pays an effective tax rate of about 15 percent on his income focused new attention on some aspects of his finances, including his millions of dollars in donations to the Mormon Church and his continuing compensation from Bain Capital, the private equity firm he left more than a decade ago.
Just three days ahead of the South Carolina primary, Mr. Romney’s opponents on Wednesday vigorously exploited uncertainty about his finances by demanding that he release his tax returns before their party picks a nominee, while Democrats, previewing likely attacks in a general election campaign, accused Mr. Romney of having something to hide. The matter is also leading to more scrutiny of his tax proposals.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/us...gewanted=print
A Letter from Mitt Romney
SOUTH CAROLINA – Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney has released the following letter to the American people:
Dear American People:
Over the past several days, my personal finances have been distorted into a grotesque caricature by the mainstream media, pundits, and other people who can count. I am writing to you to set the record straight by explaining my finances in terms the American people can relate to.
Let’s say you bought a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982 for $5,000. A couple of years later, what do you know, you sell that same bottle for $10,000. So you just made a profit of $5,000 through your own hard work. How much of that should you pay to the government? I’d say fifteen percent.
Now let’s say you have a fellow mowing the lawn at your 7,000 square foot home in La Jolla, and he turns out to be an illegal. You say, “No way, Jose” (Jose is actually his real name) and send him packing. He doesn’t deserve his full paycheck, since he lied to you in Spanish, but it wouldn’t be fair to give him nothing, either. So you pay him fifteen percent.
Now let’s pretend the United States of America is like one big restaurant. Not a fancy restaurant, mind you, but one that only gets two Michelin stars. And let’s say that you order a meal of Beluga caviar, white truffles and gold shavings, washing it down with your favorite beverage, Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982. The bill arrives and it’s quite a hefty one for a working stiff who only made $375,000 last year in speaking fees. (That’s right: minimum wage.) So when it comes to toting up the bill, how much should I tip the waiter, who in case you’re having trouble following this metaphor is the IRS? You got it: fifteen percent.
I think I’ve now shown, using these real-life examples that everyone can relate to, that no one should ever pay more than fifteen percent on their taxes. If you have been paying more than that, you should get rid of your loser accountant pronto. That’s another thing I have in common with regular Americans: we like firing people.
So – now that I’ve laid it out in simple terms that even you can understand, do you agree that you and Mitt Romney have a whale of a lot more in common than you thought? I’ll bet you ten grand you do.
Au revoir,
Mitt
http://www.borowitzreport.com/
This is really a non-issue and it isn't going to hurt him much. How soon before Romney makes a VP announcement?
The FOF Theory of the GOP Primary
Steve Benen notes that by normal standards, Mitt Romney is a terrible candidate - but just not as bad as his rivals. He adds,
I often wonder what the race for the Republican nomination would look like this year if Romney had just one credible opponent.
But that wasn't going to happen! The weakness of the GOP field is not an accident.
I view the primary race through the lens of
the FOF theory - that's for “fools and frauds”.
It goes as follows:
to be a good Republican right now, you have to affirm your belief in things that any halfway intelligent politician can see are plainly false.
This leaves room for only two kinds of candidates:
those who just aren't smart and/or rational enough to understand the problem,
and those who are completely cynical, willing to say anything to get ahead.
What sort of things am I talking about?
They range from the belief that Obama is a socialist who will destroy America with his das ly Heritage Foundation devised health care plan,
to the belief that unemployment is high because lazy people prefer their unemployment insurance checks.
On budget matters, you have to claim to believe that we can cut taxes sharply,
maintain high military spending,
and eliminate the deficit -
all without upsetting those Republican-voting Medicare recipients.
Notice that in the end, when it came to budget claims, even the supposedly hard-headed types - (cough) Paul Ryan (cough) - ended up relying on gigantic magic asterisks.
So what you have are fairly dim types like Perry, on the one side, and the utterly cynical Romney, on the other. (Gingrich manages to be both a fool and a fraud).
Maybe, just maybe, the GOP could have found someone able to achieve Romney-level cynicism while coming across as sincere; but political talent on that level is quite rare.
I mean, the various non-crazy-non-Romneys who were supposed to have a shot all turned out to be duds, e.g. Pawlenty.
The weakness of the GOP field is, in short, structural. Without the still-terrible economy, they wouldn't have a chance.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/201...e-gop-primary/
Last edited by boutons_deux; 01-19-2012 at 12:11 PM.
enter newt
Evidence for Krugman's article, InSaneTorum being both a fraud and a fool:
Santorum’s Tax Plan Would Increase The Deficit By $1.3 Trillion
The Santorum plan would reduce federal tax revenues substantially. TPC estimates that on a static basis, the Santorum plan would lower federal tax liability by about $1.3 trillion in calendar year 2015 compared with current law, roughly a 40 percent cut in total projected revenue. Relative to a current policy baseline, the reduction in liability would be about $900 billion in calendar year 2015.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/201...torum-deficit/
I think it's telling that Romney only wants to release the most recent year's return. He's able to work things so he actually pays more taxes than he normally does and prove that he's paying something around what some folks would want a flat tax to be.
Gingrich Tied With Romney in South Carolina Forecast
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes...er=rss&emc=rss
Noot's x-wife says he asked her to have "share him" (eww!) with his mistress.
Puritanical evangelicals/Repug sex-authoritarians gonna really get behind Noot
$600B deficit in 2015 with Willard Gecko's financial plan, cutting 1%'s taxes, raising 99%'s taxes
Higher Deficits Seen in Romney’s Tax Plan, and His Rivals’, Too
Mr. Romney’s tax plan — which calls for permanently extending the Bush administration’s tax cuts, reducing the corporate income tax rate and eliminating the estate tax — would cut the taxes of people earning more than a million dollars a year by an average of $295,874,
The Romney tax plan would add to the deficit by reducing federal revenues by $600 billion in 2015, a 16 percent cut, the center found.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/us...=romney&st=cse
So tomorrow he is releasing his 2010 and 2011 returns? He is going to have to do better than that, IMHO.
Better than the other candidates.
LOL, that was pretty good.A Letter from Mitt Romney
SOUTH CAROLINA – Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney has released the following letter to the American people:
Dear American People:
Over the past several days, my personal finances have been distorted into a grotesque caricature by the mainstream media, pundits, and other people who can count. I am writing to you to set the record straight by explaining my finances in terms the American people can relate to.
Let’s say you bought a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982 for $5,000. A couple of years later, what do you know, you sell that same bottle for $10,000. So you just made a profit of $5,000 through your own hard work. How much of that should you pay to the government? I’d say fifteen percent.
Now let’s say you have a fellow mowing the lawn at your 7,000 square foot home in La Jolla, and he turns out to be an illegal. You say, “No way, Jose” (Jose is actually his real name) and send him packing. He doesn’t deserve his full paycheck, since he lied to you in Spanish, but it wouldn’t be fair to give him nothing, either. So you pay him fifteen percent.
Now let’s pretend the United States of America is like one big restaurant. Not a fancy restaurant, mind you, but one that only gets two Michelin stars. And let’s say that you order a meal of Beluga caviar, white truffles and gold shavings, washing it down with your favorite beverage, Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982. The bill arrives and it’s quite a hefty one for a working stiff who only made $375,000 last year in speaking fees. (That’s right: minimum wage.) So when it comes to toting up the bill, how much should I tip the waiter, who in case you’re having trouble following this metaphor is the IRS? You got it: fifteen percent.
I think I’ve now shown, using these real-life examples that everyone can relate to, that no one should ever pay more than fifteen percent on their taxes. If you have been paying more than that, you should get rid of your loser accountant pronto. That’s another thing I have in common with regular Americans: we like firing people.
So – now that I’ve laid it out in simple terms that even you can understand, do you agree that you and Mitt Romney have a whale of a lot more in common than you thought? I’ll bet you ten grand you do.
Au revoir,
Mitt
http://www.borowitzreport.com/
Romney gave two decades of tax returns to Mccain the in the VP search, but now will only give the American people two years worth? WTF is up with that!?!?
Two decade of tax returns resulted in Palin as VP candidate. Romney learned a critical lesson.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...m-d-cohan.htmlThe tax rate on carried interest must be raised to 35 percent on the profits that come to private-equity partners from their investors’ capital. The gravy train for private-equity partners has gone on for three decades. It has been a great party, but -- as the Bloomberg View editors have also made clear -- it’s time to take the punch bowl away. The private-equity moguls know it. The American people know it.
Even Mitt Romney knows it, despite sheepishly admitting that why, yes, his federal tax rate has been around 15 percent lately, come to think of it.
It is simply illogical, and unfair, for the IRS to give private equity two major benefits, one for their businesses and one for their wallets, while the rest of us pay much higher federal tax rates with nary any comparable subsidies at all.
Can't find the link, but I read today where small business owners underpay their Medicare contribution by $24B/year, paying themselves with profits (no Medicare fee) rather than earned income, which ALL of it is.
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