Who knew being unemployed was so profitable:
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released tax records on Tuesday indicating he will pay $6.2 million in taxes on a total of $45.2 million in income over the years 2010 and 2011.
Bowing to increasing political pressure to provide more detail about his vast wealth, the former private equity executive released tax returns indicating he and his wife, Ann, paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent in 2010. They expect to pay a 15.4 percent rate when they file their returns for 2011.
Romney’s tax rate is below that of most wage-earning Americans because most of his income, as outlined in more than 500 pages of tax documents, flows from capital gains on investments.
Under the U.S. tax code, capital gains are taxed at 15 percent, compared with a top tax rate of 35 percent for wage earners.
He closed his Swiss bank account shortly after UBS named names, in case you were wondering.
How many of you lucky duckies paid 13% on your income last year? Ahh, patriotism.
Hunter Gathers
I wonder if Mittens ever takes trips to the Cayman Islands to visit his money. Can’t wait for the explanation on that.
Cap'n Swag
My favorite part of the debate was when B-Ri asked Mitt if he felt he should follow in his father’s footsteps and release years of returns, and Mitt basically said his father was a dumbass.
Yutsano
@Hunter Gathers:
I think they offer him a vault like Scrooge McDuck so he can swim in it. Seems only fair if he’s gonna grace them with his hard-inherited cash.
Hunter Gathers
Midnight info dump after a debate? Am I the only one who smells fear?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I still can’t believe anyone would run for president with money stashed in hinkie foreign bank accounts, also that this issue hasn’t blown up in Romney’s face
Mark S.
Maybe we can have a debate over whether capital gains should be taxed so much lower than regular income?
Nah, let’s talk about how everybody need some skin in the game!
Eric U.
this just shows how stupid withholding the tax returns was. I have no idea what my aggregate tax rate is, and I’m reasonably aware of the tax system. If he had released these on Christmas Eve, none of us would even know there was an issue. This story may be dead now, but if it’s not it’s because he refused to release the records before now.
Mark S.
@Yutsano:
I’d like to see that. Gold’s really heavy. He’d crack his skull trying to dive in there.
FlipYrWhig
His income is $45M+ over two years. And that’s interest. Holy fucking fuck.
General Stuck
Mitt is right when he said he had worked a real job. Counting all his money, probly paid his self pretty well, also too.
FlipYrWhig
@Mark S.: Well, that’s easy. Investment leads to job creation. For instance, the job of walking-stick re-tipper, or monocle polisher.
Mark S.
@Eric U.:
Oh, this ain’t dead. I might actually tune into the next debate. Newt’s gonna have a grand ole time with this.
What am I saying? I’m not actually going to watch a gooper debate. But I’ll be following the live updates.
mattH
Ouch, that looks like it might leave a mark.
pseudonymous in nc
As I said OT in the previous thread: $3m to the IRS, $1.5m to the LDS.
In 21st century America, the way to make fuckloads of money is… to have fuckloads of money and let your nice investment people find nice investments for it: 7% per annum will do. You don’t get rich by working a fucking job, which is why it’s laughable that Mittens tries to poke Obama on the topic.
Yutsano
@FlipYrWhig:
Ayup.
@Mark S.: I’d certainly be thoroughly entertained. But only after we’ve restored some semblance of an inheritance tax. Not that it will matter too much: I’m sure it gets split evenly five ways. Ann can just re-marry for support.
Warren Terra
It’s important not to ignore that this should be a question of federal taxes paid on our earnings – not income tax. Unless we make over $100,000, every penny we make is taxed at 8% or so in payroll tax – plus an equal amount paid by our employer. In effect, this means that from the money our employer sets aside to cover our wages and payroll tax, almost 15% goes in federal taxes before income tax even becomes an issue – more than Rmoney paid in all taxes last year. It’s quite easy for a middle-class professional to pay 15% in income tax after deductions and credits, and so to pay federal taxes at twice Rmoney’s rate, while making hundreds of times less than he does.
Also note that Rmoney says he’s worth ~$225 million, and receiving $22.5 million a year in interest. He already lives in the Victorian era of inherited wealth, high interest incomes from that inherited wealth, low taxes, and squalid peasants that he envisions for the rest of us.
mazareth
He makes more in one day than I earn in a year, AND he pays a lower effective tax rate.
Unearned income should always be taxed at a higher rate than wage income.
pseudonymous in nc
Mittens earns as much as Peyton Manning, who, admittedly, has also spent the past year getting paid for not actually working. And more than Tom Brady.
The prophet Nostradumbass
I wouldn’t be surprised if I do, but then, that will be on about $20,000 in stock I had to sell to keep going. Income from job == zero.
pseudonymous in nc
@Warren Terra:
It’s 13.3% combined for 2011, but the GOP wants it back to 15.3% unless it gets its dirty shale-oil pipeline. Nice that the numbers are either side of the Mittens Rate.
And if you’re self-employed — or one of those lucky duckies re-hired as a 1099 contractor instead of a W-2 payroll employee — you’re paying that 13.3% before income tax even enters the equation.
Villago Delenda Est
@Hunter Gathers:
No, you are not. OvenMitt radiates it like a supernova radiates the entire fucking spectrum.
What the fuck would his father say if he saw him today, I wonder? What would his mother say?
cbear
Here’s the key graph in the story:
I got $10 grand that says this is what would land the Mittster in the deep santorum and what he’s desperate to avoid talking about. Even your average low-info repuke knows what Swiss Bank Account means.
dmbeaster
@pseudonymous in nc: I am self-employed, and was going to make the same point. I pay 13.3% just in self-employment tax, and then income tax on top of that.
dead existentialist
Well, I earned $19k last year and only paid $1k in taxes. I’m rich, bitches!!
(Of course, the feds soaked me for sin taxes, e.g., rolling tobacco and scotch. AND, I provide a valuable service to the community my substitute teaching. Also too, I have a very small carbon footprint.)
Free your mind, and your ass will follow!
The Dangerman
Romney will be the poster boy for ending the Bush Tax cuts.
Thanks, Mitt!
TenguPhule
Is it too early to starting getting the basket ready for 13.9 percent of his body mass to be removed via Madam Gullet?
dead existentialist
FYWP. my=by. Cooooooollle. Fix the damn edit button.
Darnell From LA
I picture Mitt being just like Marlow Stansfield from The Wire. Poppin’ down the Caymans, pulling out a few hundred thou from the bank just to smell it, run it through his fingers, before putting it right back into his account.
“Yo, money aint’ got no owners, only spenders!”
— Willy “Bloody Mitt” Romney
xyzxyzxyz
I lurk a lot around here, but seldom make a statement. I think there is a lot of interesting things here:
1. Who the hell is running the Romney campaign that they dump this info late at night? Bodies from gangland hits have been dumped with more elegance. Christ, put it out 30 minutes before the closing bell on the NYSE, and it all rides. Idiots. If you’re going to do damage control, be a professional.
2. My wife and I are close to the 1%. We’re fuzzy-headed academics who work for a living (well, define “work” as you like in that sentence….we really don’t work…we teach kids, think about science, do research….good work if you can get it). We paid 26% of our income in taxes in 2010. I’ll stack our accomplishments up against Romney any day. I can certainly say I’ve created more “job creators” that that jackass ever has.
3. This is the question where Romney gets killed, “Why do you pay less in taxes than the teachers, firemen, policemen, builders, workers (w/o pink slips) and others that provide you and yours the life you’re used to?” You can keep rolling up those shirt sleeves and rubbing cream on your chapped ass from your butt-hugging jeans, but you are not of the street. Never have been. Daddy Warbucks, just fucking own it already.
4. Christie is kicking himself in his ample ass right about now for not running. His ego is as big as his appetite, and the latest debates have been nothing but a big Golden Corral for that ass.
Rant over….sorry.
Darnell From LA
@The Dangerman: I think Willard’s fucked. You can tell it’s bad because as of right now Foxnews.com has NOTHING about Mitten’s tax returns, and Drudge just has one line about Mitt’s income for 1 year.
The jokes, they write themselves. “He self deported his money” etc….
And just imagine if John Kerry had been found to have a Swiss Bank account in 2004. Holy moly, what they would have done with that.
Willard is cooked. Carve him up, pour the wine. He’s on the fucking menu.
Cap'n Swag
George Romney is as embarrassed for his son as Irv Kristol. Sad.
John Cole
@Cap’n Swag: https://twitter.com/#!/Johngcole/statuses/161708405944360960
Darnell From LA
@xyzxyzxyz: This;
Most people just don’t get how true this is. Willard’s dad was not only one of the richest, most powerful, most respected Mormons in the country, he was also a successful CEO for AMC. (think Lee Iacocca)
Now imagine Lee Iacocca having been elected to 2 terms as Governor of Michigan, the 6th most populous state at that time.
How imagine Lee Iacocca running for President, then becoming Secty of HUD in the Reagan Administration.
THEN, imagine Mrs. Iacocca (yes, mom!) running for the Senate on the GOP ticket! (yes, Mitt’s mom ran for Senate)
And Willard wants us to believe that being George Romney’s freakin’ son wasn’t a slight advantage in life. Really. Got it, Willard. Being George Romney’s son literally makes George W. Bush look like he grew up as a chimney sweep.
Asshole.
pseudonymous in nc
And I fucking hope that Team Obama and the Senate Dems note the proximity of that Mittens Rate to the combined (temporarily reduced) payroll tax rate and uses it as a fucking cudgel when the issue comes back to the table.
But I want to see if there’s any trace on the funds that quarter-billion is invested in. Probably not, since he won’t be buying the Vanguard S&P tracker or anything mere mortals can invest in, but still.
The Dangerman
@Darnell From LA:
Yup; his damage control team should all be fired.
He had a nice line tonight: “I didn’t pay a $1 more than legally required. True…
…and, if he had taken the Warren Buffet approach (the tax laws are obscene), he could sell it. Instead, his policies cut his taxes further.
His campaign is so deep in the Santorum (hold on, that makes even me go ewwwwwwwwwww) that I don’t see how he survives it.
pseudonymous in nc
@Darnell From LA:
But George Romney now sums up the era of Republicans It’s OK To Like, as opposed to It’s OK If You’re A Republican.
pseudonymous in nc
Not that I’m denying that Mittens had a life of privilege, but his belief that he rightfully earns all of his $20m a year in interest from having cashed out from Bain Capital is not an inherited one.
Fuck, I know people who cashed out from dot-com things in their early thirties and can now live off the interest, but they feel like the luckiest bastards on earth every single day, and live their lives accordingly.
MikeJ
If Romney had been required to pay 35%, would he have refused to make make those investments that made him $45million in one year?
Gust Avrakotos
That about what I paid in income tax. Canada tax code isn’t much different when it comes to dividend income. So of course Cole is wrong again in his childishly simplistic understanding of the world, politics, finances, war, dogs, cats, food.
Yutsano
@Gust Avrakotos: Once again Derf misses the point.
Villago Delenda Est
@Yutsano:
It’s what the pathetic little twit does. Miss the point. All the fucking time.
Darnell From LA
This is bad. Really. In so many ways;
1) What’s with the Late Night dump, all Nixon style? Even if it was not intentional, Jesus C’mon. Were the tax returns wrapped in old newspaper and thrown through the transom at Reuters by a guy in a black Fedora?
2) Swiss? Swiss accounts? Wow, were they numbered? If there’s one thing GOP primary voters just love it’s Swiss Bank Accounts. Especially old, retired GOP primary voters in Boca Raton living on SSI. Yikes.
3) 13.9%. That’s less than what I paid when I made $30,000 a year turning big ones into little ones.
4) Millions of dollars to the Mormon Church. Every year, like clockwork. Not an issue, but in the eyes of Evangelical Christians that’s millions of dollars to “indoctrinate people into a cult.”
Lastly,
5) Mitt has been running for President since 2006! If this is what his taxes look like in 2010, after 4 years of running for President, what in the holy fuck did his taxes look like before???
My prediction: Tomorrow Willard just says fuck it, whips out a Monocle, ivory walking stick and introduces America to his “enchanting Negrass” Hattie.
Yutsano
@Villago Delenda Est: I’ve noticed several commenters with a strange obsession with JC. It’s not only stalkerish, it’s downright creepy.
Sly
Why does Warren Buffet envy Mitt Romney’s success?
MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson
@Gust Avrakotos:
Morning, Musthaveakotex.
Gust Avrakotos
@Yutsano: Kinda like your obsession with me my little groupie. Carry on with your projections.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Gust Avrakotos: You flatter yourself.
Yutsano
@Gust Avrakotos:
Your self-flattery is hilarious. Your elitism and obsession with a country where you have zero say in what happens is even richer. Hoser.
MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Notice how similar Kotexboy sounds to our little comrade Kola?
Villago Delenda Est
@Darnell From LA:
As part of this, he needs to dress like the Monopoly (the game) guy, or Scrooge McDuck. Might as well go for the full effect. Daddy Warbucks, indeed.
ruemara
This year, I came so close to the sweet, sweet nectar of earning $19k. I still paid more taxes than Mittens. Well, fuck me running.
Brain Hertz
You know, ever since I moved to the US from the UK a little over a decade ago, I’ve had this thing where I have a momentary panic every year right after I get my W2. It goes something like this:
“fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. There’s been some huge mistake, and they’ve been screwing up my withholding all year. There’s no way that that amount is enough to cover my federal tax bill. I’m going to owe the IRS some, like, fucking gigantic amount of money.”
Then I put all the numbers into TurboTax, and it tells me that the IRS owes me $2000 and they’ll send me a check.
I think my effective federal tax rate last year was 23%.
(The middle tier tax rate in the UK, which cuts in at about $50k, is 40%. The top tier, which cuts in at about $250k, is 50%)
I guess my experiences are a little different from many here, but it puts somebody like Romney paying 13.5% on a multi-million dollar income into a whole new light…
David Koch
Swiss Mitt
Fucking. Swiss. Bank. Account.
Brain Hertz
Swiss Mitt
I like it. Is he any relation to Swiss Tony?
Brain Hertz
Swiss Tony link, in case the reference was a little obscure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_E0ZF2uIKs
David Koch
Swiss. Bank. Account.
There are so many different kinds of banks in the United States, from regular depositories to credit unions to private banks to various investment banks. Then there stocks and bonds, as well as Treasury notes, and investments trusts. There are just endless ways to store ones cash within the United States.
Yet Mittens had a notorious Swiss-Bank-Account.
Warren Terra
@Brain Hertz:
Unless you’ve remembered to include your employer’s payroll tax contributions, or unless you’re self-employed, almost 30% of the money your employer sets aside to pay you is going to federal taxes – a double Rmoney.
patrick the pedantic literalist
@David Koch:
Mitt needs a Swiss bank account in case he ever gets shot, gets amnesia and forgets his identity as a corporate assassin. The account number is sewn in under his skin.
Valdivia
the best part is that his Swiss bank account was closed after the UBS scandal–and they named names. That’s where the gold mine of information is. I hope some enterprising journalist goes digging!
Jack
I honestly think a good part of Mitt’s hesitation in releasing his tax records is that he’s simply afraid for his safety out on the campaign trail in deep-red gun-clinger country where he’s already been angrily confronted over related matters.
Oh and when Mitt said that all corporate profits ultimately go to people, he meant “me”.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Valdivia:
Fix’t.
Swiss bank account eh? Making over 60 grand a day in interest? Out of touch with regular people? Cruel to animals? Elitist?
This guy is the perfect candidate for the Republican party!
Valdivia
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I agree. I just love that now we not only have the Caymans which are sort of seedy we also have the Swiss Bank Account which spells evil elitism. I love it.
bob h
I thought the whole reason for Swiss bank accounts was tax avoidance. Why have one unless you are taking advantage of their secrecy and nondislcosure?
Cacti
Remember, if you attack one of the super rich parking their tens of millions in Switzerland and the Caymans, you’re an envious hater of free enterprise.
MikeJ
@bob h: Dude, have you *seen* the calendars they give away?
Citizen_X
@bob h:
Or if you’re a criminal. Or a dictator.
I’m just saying.
MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
He hasn’t actually shot any poor people yet, but he’s got time to fill that gap in his resume, I am sure.
Applejinx
Fuck me, he makes TWICE what I make a year, in a day, makes it on interest where I have to grind away producing stuff for domestic and overseas sales bringing money into the country, and he still pays a lower tax rate than me.
I have no health care and can’t afford to get sick and he pays a lower tax rate than me.
Fuck. ME.
MikeJ
@bob h: The serious answer is yes, it’s for tax avoidance which is perfectly legal. Tax evasion is illegal, and is often done with the use of the same accounts.
chopper
also remember in the debate, how newtie said he wanted to reduce capital gains taxes to zero, so mittens and the rest of the rich wouldn’t pay a dime in taxes.
these guys are such chumps. that’s gonna go over well with the 99 percent, either a wall st fat cat or a dude who wants wall st fat cats to pay nothing in taxes.
Warren Terra
@bob h:
This is what I’ve gathered from reading up on this in the last day or two:
There are apparently three possible reasons Mitt might want to have his money overseas (unless there are more; I’d love to hear of some):
1) Some complicated tax dodge involving IRAs that I’ve not tried to understand in the slightest. I stress that this is wholly legal, and everything is reported to the IRS – but it is hard to explain and to justify.
2) To hide income by not reporting it. This would be very, very illegal, and Mitt assures us that nothing of the sort has occurred. It would be easier to tell if he’d released more tax returns (say, the seven years’ worth Obama released in 2008), if only because it was in the late 2000’s that the Swiss bank UBS and the government of the Cayman islands announced they would henceforth cooperate with American tax authorities to some extent.
3) To set up foreign-based funds to invest in overseas ventures without bringing the money into the US. Any US investors in such ventures would be obligated to report their gains and pay taxes on them (see point 2), but there would be an advantage for foreign investors (or for Americans less ethical than Mitt): if either the investments or the investment fund were in the US the investors would have to pay US taxes on the profits. By keeping the fund outside the US and investing outside the US the investors don’t have to pay US taxes, so long as they’re not US citizens and aren’t living here.
Possibility 3 is by far the least sleazy of these. But even that is politically risky: under this possibility, Mitt is stashing money in infamous overseas tax havens in order to team up with foreigners (or with less ethical Americans) in investing their fortunes abroad. The question of why he isn’t investing at home, in America, with Americans, would be obvious.
MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson
@Warren Terra:
Mitt might want to hide the source of his income as well, and so filter it through the most notoriously secretive banks in the world. That could make things extremely interesting.
pk
When I was growing up (not in this country) the words ” Swiss Bank accounts” and corrupt politicians were synonymous. If that is the same linkage in people’s mind here, then Romney is screwed.
Cacti
@Warren Terra:
It’s just a happy coincidence, of course, that Mitt unparked his money from Switzerland right around the time that UBS started naming names.
His explanation…
“I can’t leave my money in the world headquarters for tax evasion, I’m running for office for Pete’s sake.”
Egg Berry
In this thread, the politics of class envy.
Lojasmo
@Gust Avrakotos:
Funny thing. I recently looked up Canadian tax code Re. Dividends, and I can say unequivocally, that you are either lying or ignorant.
arguingwithsignposts
@Lojasmo: It’s Derp with a new nym, so, i can say unequivocally, it’s both.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cacti: One wonders about that. Why not the Channel Islands or some other place less renowned for tax evasion and ill-gotten gain stashing? I don’t think that Mitt is particularly creative or fast on his feet.
SFAW
Is this a trick question? (So to speak.) Similar to “Newt – stupid, evil, or lying?”
As arguingwithsignposts might say: why not both?
Birthmarker
@Darnell From LA:
Baby carrot factory??
SFAW
What amazes me is that someone so smart/educated, can be so fucking stupid/clueless when it comes to what is arguably the most important job interview of his career. If it’s not a case of humongous arrogance, then it would be interesting to consider whether he has a major death wish (i.e. self-destructive behavior).
Me, I’m thinking it’s arrogance, but the alternative would be, as Fluffy might say, “Fascinating”.
Birthmarker
@Yutsano:
This is what bugs me We come here as guests, with every right to argue on facts, then someone comes by and makes personal attacks against the fpers. I;m from the south and we don’t like rude.
Nylund
@Lojasmo:
Actually, from the way it looks from my quick check, I think he’s basically right. The capital gains tax rate in Canada does top out at about the same rate.
The way it works there 50% of your capital gains are tax free, the other 50% are taxed at the individual level, which depends on your tax bracket. So, in essence, the capital gains tax is half of what the normal federal tax rate is (which varies per person based on their income level).
The highest rate for Federal taxes in Canada is presently 29%, so for someone in the highest tax bracket, they’d pay 14.5% in taxes on their capital gains. For someone in a lower bracket, it’d be even lower.
At least, that’s how it looks to me when I look it up.
OldDave
@patrick the pedantic literalist:
Fixed.
JCT
@Odie Hugh Manatee: And meanwhile, now we know why he didn’t release anything prior to 2010 — Swiss Bank Account.
I love that it got closed right around UBS — so fucking typical of that weasel. It might “look” bad.
Meanwhile, the ads write themselves ” I make 30K a year and my tax rate is higher than Mitt Romney’s and NOW he wants to cut his in half and raise mine”. What gives?
rikyrah
sigh.
I keep on going back to this. He closed his Swiss account AFTER Barack Obama became President. I ask again…W-T-F was he going to do if he had beaten McCain?
The man’s been running for President since 2007 – HE SHOULD AT LEAST RELEASE 2007- onward
El Cid
I just noticed the music video chosen (maybe I viewed it in a reader which doesn’t do Flashplayer or maybe it was added since last night).
Awesome pick. I’m laughing.
From now on, Mitt Romney’s going to waver between the serial killer version of Thurston Howell The Third and Young Frankenstein’s monster singing “Puttin’ on the Ritz”.
Romney will just stand there and open his mouth and what I’ll hear is ‘PUUUH AHHHN REEEIIIIHHHHHH….’
chopper
@Cap’n Swag:
i love how romney is great at answering a question the second time. in the last debate he totally flubbed that one, but for some reason they always make sure to give him a second crack at it in the next one.
pseudonymous in nc
@Warren Terra:
That’s my take — he had a Swiss account (honestly, not all Swiss accounts are for Nazi-pillaged gold) for money that was either coming from non-domiciled investments or available for non-domiciled investments. Basically, a lump of money that’s been doing its thing overseas, and wasn’t going to be repatriated any time soon.
Personally, I think the IRS are bastards about their overseas claims, and any American expat worker will tell you about the drag it can be to file annually, even if you’re in a treaty nation where your income (taxed in the country of residence) remains under the threshold that the IRS starts demanding its share. But that’s the law.
It looks dodgy politically, and as MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson suggests, may also be another way of concealing just where Mittens’ Millions are invested in order to deliver those above-market rates of return.
MazeDancer
Mitt and I do pay the same self-deportation tax on our sole proprietorships. Though his “not very much in speaking fees” is somewhat above my receipts from grinding toil for my clients night and day. Clearly, I need to command more podiums and do less actual work-related working.
Over 22 mil in interest? Where can he earn that? What’s the rate of return? What kind of principal does one have to have fleeced over decades to get that by doing nothing?
If it’s buying and selling stocks and bonds, or whatever Goldman suggests, and that’s the kind of results they produce, guess one can understand why rich people give them their money.
kindness
This morning when NPR was discussing the 14% tax rate Mitt enjoys they were comparing it to 1) Newt’s 30% and 2) other millionaires 15%. They never compared it to the 25% that someone earning $50,000 a year makes. I swear to god NPR is doing everything they can to elect Repubs. Don’t donate money to them any longer. Yea I like my local KQED but paying them only benefits my political adversaries.
jl
Late to this thread, but ha, I said so (along with many others). Had to get that average tax rate above 15 percent.
I dunno much about the legalities of taxes, but just a percentage point makes a world of difference.
Been at or over 15 percent both years, he might have gotten away with est taxes for this year, and just last year’s.
Mitt needs to release earlier returns.
kd bart
For 2010, I paid a Federal rate of 14.85% on my income. That doesn’t even include the 7.65% in payroll taxes I paid which Mitty doesn’t have to pay on his cap gains.
marv
There’s other ways of looking at this thing. Maybe he thought his untaxed money had created enough jobs in America and should go create jobs overseas someplace – sort of like a Mormon-mission thing.
WaterGirl
@xyzxyzxyz: You should de-lurk more often!
Brain Hertz
@ Warren Terra
Well, I’m using the comparable method of counting. Whether or not you include the employer’s component, and whether or not you include payroll contributions or the equivalent, income based taxes are remarkably low compared to any historical equivalent, and compared to any other developed nation I can think of (the point of my post, in case it wasn’t obvious, that I’m still shocked at how low my taxes are compared to what I was used to paying in the UK – on a much smaller income then, I should add).
Then I find that somebody like Romney is paying barely half the rate I pay, and I’m sure he’s not exceptional for people in his income bracket.
And people wonder why the infrastructure is rotting and there’s no money for education, despite running a gigantic deficit…
Brain Hertz
oh, and in my original post I forgot to mention that the 40% and 50% rates don’t include the additional 12% national insurance contributions (the approximate equivalent of social security). Contributions at that rate are capped at about $70k income, after which the rate is 2%. There is no upper limit at which contributions disappear entirely.
maya
Did any of you detracters take into consideration that Mitt kept his $$$ in a Swiss bank because he likes Swiss cheese? A lot. Same with The Cayman Islands – he most likely has an aquired, cultured taste for fresh cayman flesh.
Brachiator
@Warren Terra:
Nonsense. Mitt’s self employment income for 2010 is $593,000. Big deal.
His other income was $20 million freaking dollars.
It’s not a tax dodge. If you don’t try to understand it, why comment on it?
There are also a couple of trusts involved. A lot of it is fairly standard stuff for wealthy taxpayers.
M. Taylor
@Darnell From LA: I heard Donny Deutsch on the Today Show this morning refer to Mittens as a “self-made man.” Sure, a self-made man whose father was CEO of a major US corporation and governor of the state. Self-made, my ass!
Heliopause
Sadly, the news media and liberal blogs will hammer on Romney over his tax rate and then forget about it once it ceases being an electoral issue. The actual scandal is not Romney but that this tax rate exists in the first place.
Heliopause
Say, I’ve got a great idea for the SOTU; Obama proposes raising the long-term capital gains rate for the highest income brackets to 25%. It’s a win-win for him because
1. it will appeal to voters he’s trying to woo and
2. his corporate masters needn’t worry that it will ever actually happen. He can even wink while he’s saying it, just to let everybody know.
Ed Drone
@Villago Delenda Est:
No way! Scrooge McDuck doesn’t wear pants! The mental image sickens.
And he’ll never do Daddy Warbucks ’cause he’d have to shave his head and adopt an annoying orphan with no pupils in her eyes.
Ed
Ed Drone
@Warren Terra:
Double-R-Money? What a serendipitous typo!
Ed
Ed Drone
@pk:
The “You know who else had a Swiss bank account” ads write themselves, don’t they?
Ed