On Friday September 21 Mitt Romney released his 2011 federal income tax return after certain partisan democrats have used his lack of financial transparency to paint him as an out-of-touch plutocrat. After the returns were released it very quickly became news that his tax rate was 14% or 2 million dollars. Not only did his returns show he paid 2 million in just federal income tax, but it also showed that he donated $4 million to charity.
His returns show that of the $4 million he donated to charity, he only deducted $2.25 million of those donations to avoid the asinine media circus that would have ensued if the former governor had deducted the full amount, because his tax rate would have dropped below 13%. 13% was the number he had earlier sworn he never had paid less than, so releasing a return indicating he paid the 12.5% many estimate he actually had to, would have led to further political posturing and grandstanding about his personal fortune.
While an election is undoubtably one of the best times to have a national discussion on the tax code and its many complexities, imperfections, and loopholes, the attempt to make his money an issue in the campaign is infantile. Plenty of people might be predisposed to believe that Romney has played the system to reduce his tax burden to what some might call unfair levels, but focusing on such things distorts the mind-boggling amount of issues the President will have to deal with. A campaign that focuses on petty issues and mud-slinging is unlikely to produce a candidate that can negotiate a compromise on the economic time bomb America will face without a shared sacrifice.
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Comments: 36
Apparantly you do not understand the difference between an effective rate, and a tax bracket.
a family of 4, taking stadard deductions, earning 75K pays an effective rate of 8.5% - about 6430 - in taxes. only the LAST few thousand are in the 25% tax bracket.
Before you make comments on issues, you should try to understand what the facts are.
The "gap" has gotten smaller - rich people have had their income and their net worth go down MORE than the middle class has.
I bet you are one that does not understand that ending the so-called tax cuts for the rich (bush's cuts) will hurt the middle and lower income 3 times more than it will the high income group.
Higher income, taxes will go up a max of 3% by ending them. Middle will go up 10%, and the lower will go up 5% PLUS lose the increased Earned Income Credit, and a ton of child credits.
Download the IRS forms dfor 2000, and calculate your taxes today with them, then do it again using 2011 forms.
If they are not continued, You will be wishing you had stocked up on KY jelly.
Given that his 2011 return indicates that the only way he did not pay less than 13% is because he chose not to take all of the deductions available to him for the charitable donations he made. Why? In order not to be caught in a lie about having paid at least 13% each year? Would the previous years show that he did, in fact, pay less than 13% in many of those years? Perhaps a lot less? Perhaps nothing?
Who knows? Not me. Not you. No one but Romney and his accountants. He is making sure of that.
No - wrong again.
He also released a Certified summary of th3e prior 10 years. Certified by Price Waterhouse no less.
An act that I am sure cost him at least 30,000.
Caught in a lie????????
Get real.
First off, his comment was he had gone over his old returns and had never paid less than 13%.
That has nothing to do with the FUTURE return of 2011.
And he did NOT release a portion of it before - he realeses the filing for an extention - which is incredibly common for people with more complicated tax returns to file for. So he released 100% of 2011 that was in existance at the time, and now has released the new forms as they becvame available.
THe certified summary, shows he did indeed never pay less than the 13%.
I can about guarantee, if he spent the additional 100 thou or so, to have every page of every return for the previous 10 years released, you would not understand them.
And then you would claim they were fake, and not the real returns.
The only think I am sure of, is you would be critical of a bar of gold being dusty even if he GAVE it to you!.
Romney does not reveal his tax return ... carping from libtards.
Romney reveals his tax return ... carping from libtards.
Romney donates 4 million to charities ... carping from libtards.
Romney does not take every available legal deduction ... carping from libtards.
Romney pays a higher rate (14%) than the national average (12%) ... carping from libtards.
Am I the only one that sees a trend here?
Romney doesn't reveal taxes: baggers come to his defense.
Romney against abortions: baggers come to his defense.
Romney makes money off abortions: baggers come to his defense.
Romney call veterans, seniors, parastites: baggers come to his defense.
Am I the only one who sees a trend here?
I was going to offer up a retort to Ali's post but after reading it....It's just plain stupid!
Osama Bin Laden and Andrew Breitbart are dead, And GM is alive.
That's all that matters here. In any case, I knew that you or someone like you would come flailing in here like a duck with one wing, and you're first!
Congratulations!
Nope. We all see the trend.
What does it say about a candidate that manipulates his taxes for political purposes, i.e., to avoid having lied about a political statement, knowing that he will simply amend his tax return after the election to recover all the deductions he says he isn't taking?
It says this is someone who is out of touch with America. It says he has no qualms about manipulating his taxes for politics. It says he has so much money that he won't even miss a couple of million dollars over a few months, while at the same time advocating policies that would increase taxes on the working poor, middle class, minorities, and women.
This is a man who said he "doesn't worry about poor people" because there is a safety net for them...the same safety net that he has argued to remove.
His intentional deception of the American people and willingness to manipulate the tax system for political purposes says a lot about him.
Even he himself said that if he paid more taxes than he needed than it would disqualify him from the presidency.
So yes, it does matter. It matters a lot.
One day, you'll display the intellect of that one winged duck, but it probably won't be in your lifetime, and certainly not in mine.
I think it is out of touch to go on a TV show instead of meeting with a world leader, but maybe that is just me. It is not as though Israel is in trouble or anything....
I think it is out of touch to post a memo stating that there will be no terror attacks on 9/11 and then scrubbing it after four Americans are killed....
I think it is out of touch to obsess about Mitt Romney's taxes or any random (and true) statements he makes while the world is on fire.
I find it extremely hilarious that even a Kiwi bagger wouldn't want to know more about their candidate.
As for stupidity, you, Dan, Mick and BM showed up. That's enough for ten posts. Must have hit a nerve. In any case, all of it is true. You're holding Romney to a much lower standard because you're afraid of what his taxes would reveal, and if you had any integrity, you'd admit it.
Plenty of both on this post already.
The man gave away almost 30% of his income.
Doesnt sound too greedy to me!
Now yea, he had plenty left to live on - but it WAS his money!
He earned it!
So in reality, he kept 9MM and paid 2MM in taxes - sounds like an effective rate of 22% to me - but hey, why let 6th grade math get inthe way LOL.
He also released a sworn summary from Price Waterhouse, of the last 10 years.
It shows total income, and total taxes paid - what more could anyone reasonably ask for?
Anyone really want the 1000's ofpages of the full returns over the 10 years?
All his school records are open. His draft card is available. Everything he has ever done, has been revealed.
Yet Romney could give some a million in gold, and they would complain about the dust on it.
It's been good enough for every other candidate since his father established the precedent.
That is just silly!
LIke the "Secret" bank account overseas - that every person in the world can read about, because it is publically disclosed.
Yea - real secret LOL.
We certainly did not learn the things hidden by Obama from his IRS forms - loike he had to write papers, posts, etc to get his degrees - how did that 'poor' guy pay for all that fancy college? What were his grades?
Talk about a straw man issue.
By not declaring a significant portion of his 'charitable donations, millions of dollars, Romney did in fact pay significantly more in taxes than were legally due. He did this to support a previous statement in which he promised that he had paid at least 13% in taxes for each of the past 10 years, in effect casting doubt on the other eight years he still refuses to reveal, rather than reassuring anyone.
By his own stated measurement, he is not qualified to be president. I think he may have just found an area of agreement with the 47% of Americans he just finished insulting.
Forget the fact he reviewed his OLD returns, and had never paid less - the people that dislike him would have had a field day with it - so this is the lesser of the evils.
If the man gave you a bar of solid gold, you would complain that it wasnt shiny enough.
Yeah, but never mind that. Please pay no attention to what Mitt Romney actually says, because...you know...it's hard...Etch-a-Sketch...get in the ring...he's also unemployed...Etch-a-Sketch...poor people (anybody making less than $200,000-250,000 "middle income") are parasites who see themselves as victims...you're lucky to have Mitt in this race, and reboot or not, he's gonna win...wanna bet $10,000? ;-)