Posted on 09/21/2012 4:52:26 PM PDT by lbryce
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney earned $13.69 million in 2011, mostly income from his investments, and paid $1.9 million in taxes for an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent, his campaign announced Friday.
Following months of political pressure on him to reveal more information about his large personal fortune, Romney released his 2011 tax returns Friday afternoon, as well as a summary of his effective tax rates dating back to 1990.
Romney earned $6.8 million from capital gains and another $3.6 million in interest, according to his tax return. None of his income came from wages, the primary source of income for most Americans. Capital gains are taxed at a substantially lower rate than wages and salaries for high-earners.
Romney earned about $190,000 in author and speaking fees, as well as $260,390 for sitting on the board of Marriott International, according to the tax return.
Romney and his wife, Ann, donated $4.02 million to charity in 2011, nearly 30 percent of their income, helping to reduce their tax obligation, the campaign said.
The Romneys only claimed a tax deduction for $2.25 million of those charitable contributions to engineer a higher tax rate than they otherwise would have paid. This move was to “conform” to the candidate’s statement in August that he paid a federal income tax rate of at least 13 percent of his income in each of the last 10 years, R. Bradford Malt, Romney’s trustee, said in a statement released by the campaign.
At a Republican presidential debate in January, on the same night he released his 2010 tax returns, Romney scoffed at the notion that he would pay more taxes than he is legally required.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I have one question about Romney’s taxes.
Did he commit any crimes? No? End of discussion. If people do not like it, then hire politicians who will change it.
You get what you pay for. Or in the case of the 47%, you get what someone else pays for.
I get 3.5% on a fixed income 401K account and I don’t have anywhere near the money Romney has.
Consider yourself lucky.
Please see post #19,20 Applies to the both of you as well.
If Mitt walked on water, tomorrow’s headlines would be, “Mitt Can’t Swim.”
That's been true of everything this campaign has done. They're making it too easy for the Obama camp and inviting the possibility, however slim, that they might actually lose against Obama in this economy.
Post #19, 20 applying to you emphatically shows that you are the one not paying attention or are just merely incapable.
30 year corporate bonds were yielding in the 5% range. If interest rates spike though, bond investors lose money should they decide to sell, because interest rate hikes result in lower bond prices.
Indeed. Thanks for sharing your insights, dear justiceseeker93!
About the already been taxed thing, I don’t feel people fully understand the double tax laid on corporate profits. They tax it through the VAT the second before it gets into your hands, then through capital gains the second it falls in your hands. But somehow you’re said only to be paying the second part, and it is scandalously low to the ignorant (and tamely scandalous to Warren Buffet). The VAT tax generally lowers income for the righteous working man, too, less directly by removing the impetus for production. But upon capital gains it works directly, and the imps in Washington with all their wheels and pullies and gears within gears do so love our ignorance.
“the original capital was already taxed”
True, and so was the profit, through the national VAT tax known as the corporate tax. Then it is taxed as “unearned income” (because surely minimum wage employees earn their keep whereas Romney loafed around all hus life/s). Then, of all the unmitigated gall, they tax it again when you die. Plus probably several times inbetween. As many times as they can get away with, and they can get away with it all.
Apparently I’m supposed to be more angry about what Romney does with his money than what Obama does with mine.
You mean the post where you said:
I said from the perspective of most Americans
OK, I'll grant you that ... you did say most Americans. What I won't grant you is that you're actually paying attention ... as is evidenced by the very next words from that post ...
the amount Romney paid, being a billionaire and all
Mitt Romney, while being a very successful businessman, isn't anywhere near to being billionaire - although that's how Bambi and the MSM characterize him with their non-stop demonization of Billionaires and Millionaires. His net worth is in the neighborhood of $200 million - that's with an M, not a B.
So, Bryce, whether you like or not, I'll still be counting you among those I don't think are really paying attention.
” You can bet that if there was anything in the returns even remotely suspicious of impropriety, the Obama IRS would have him audited as quickly as you could say “Mitt,” and the details of the audit would have been leaked (illegally) to their MSM pals. That’s just “politics as usual” in the current Regime, part of their SOP. “
When you can’t run on your record, toss innuendo to the leftist press.
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