Yeah, scubavol ... the lefty hypocrites only want to talk about the tax returns of Republicans, don'tcha know.
Romney Paid $6.2 Million in Taxes Over Last Two Years, Gave Even More To Charity
By Guy Benson
Townhall
Jan 24, 2012 12:54 AM EST
The basics, via Reuters:
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released tax records on Tuesday indicating he will pay $6.2 million in taxes on a total of $42.5 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.
Before we go any further, two timely reminders from conservative wonk Avik Roy regarding that last bolded bit:
(1) This 15% Romney tax rate issue is a canard. Romney paid both 15% and corporate income taxes (usually 30%+) on his investments, as all do.
(2) Companies that Bain invested in paid income taxes that are thereby not passed through as profits to partnership.
Roy reinforces points argued eloquently by the Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore last year during the Democrats' "Buffett Tax" nonsense:
The reason for the light capital gains and dividend tax is that corporations pay up to a 35% tax on their profits before a dime of it is passed on to shareholders. The real tax rate on corporate income paid to individuals through capital gains and dividends is not 15%. It is closer to 45% once you count the tax on corporate profits. If the dividend tax rises to 20% next year from 15% today, then the total tax on dividends paid to shareholders would be closer to 50%, and that doesn't include state and local taxes.
Here's another detail that Lefties won't want to focus on, conveniently buried in the penultimate paragraph of Reuters' write-up:
Regardless, the emerging picture was of a man of great means who contributes mightily to charity. The documents showed he and his wife contributed $7 million in charity over the two years, much of it going to his Mormon church.
So between taxes and charity, the Romney's paid $13.2 million since 2010 -- roughly one-third of their income. How will the media treat these numbers? Blogger Exurban Jon has it about right:
The headline should be that Romney donated 15% of his income [to charity]. Instead it'll be that he "only" paid 14% to almighty government.
Right, because private charity isn't the State, and the State is king. Hey, remember this?
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2012/01/24/breaking_romney_paid_62_million_in_taxes_over_last_two_years_gave_even_more_to_charity
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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