Romney Says He Pays US Taxes - About 15 Percent

Romney Says He Pays US Taxes - About 15 Percent

By Kasie Hunt | Associated Press | 01/18/2012

Excerpts:

FLORENCE, S.C. (AP) – “His wealth and taxes suddenly a campaign focus, Mitt Romney said Tuesday he pays an effective federal tax rate of about 15 percent. That's far less than if his earnings were wages rather than gains from investments and dividends, and the disclosure under pressure triggered a sharp response from the Democratic White House as well as one of his GOP presidential rivals.

Romney told reporters he also received money from speechmaking before he announced his presidential candidacy early last year "but not very much." He provided no details, but in his financial disclosure statement, released last August, he reported being paid $374,327.62 for such appearances for the 12 months ending last February.

That amount alone would place his income among the top 1 percent of all Americans, and Romney's description of it as a relatively small amount suggested his overall income was far higher.

It's well known that Romney's father was the chairman and president of American Motors, and he himself was a successful businessman and founder of Bain Capital, a private equity firm, where he earned millions. At the same time, his refusal to release his tax returns has been a persistent issue, and one that flared anew in a debate Monday night in which he grudgingly said he might release them in April.

On Tuesday, he said he would release at least one year's returns in April. The White House, which expects Romney to win the Republican nomination and take on President Barack Obama this year, reacted, too.

Spokesman Jay Carney said: "This only illuminates what (Obama) believes is an issue, which is that everybody who's working hard ought to pay their fair share. That includes millionaires who might be paying an effective tax rate of 15 percent when folks making $50,000 or $75,000 or $100,000 a year are paying much more."

Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who runs second in some polls in South Carolina, taunted the former Massachusetts governor: "I think we ought to rename our flat tax. We have a 15 percent flat tax, so this would be a Mitt Romney flat tax and all Americans would pay the rate" that he paid. Gingrich is expected to release his own returns on Thursday.

At 15 percent, Romney's federal income tax rate would still be higher than the rate paid by many Americans. On average, households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay a federal income tax rate of 5.7 percent this year, according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank. However, when Social Security and other taxes are included, that same household would pay an average federal tax rate of 16.6 percent.

Overall, the average American household will pay 9.3 percent in federal income taxes - and 19.7 percent in all federal taxes.

Romney's wealth - he is worth between $190 million and $250 million - puts him among the richest Americans. But if most of his income is from investments, it could help him to significantly lower his federal tax bill compared to people who make money in other ways.

While the top federal tax rate for investment income - qualified dividends and long-term capital gains - is 15 percent, the top tax rate for wages is 35 percent on taxable income above $388,350. Wages are also subject to Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, while investment earnings are not.

With unemployment high and the country still struggling to recover from the worst recession in decades, Obama's re-election campaign has signaled it intends to make income disparity a central part of this year's campaign.

Romney's remaining nomination foes emphasized in the debate in Myrtle Beach on Monday night that whatever vulnerabilities he might bring to a campaign against Obama, the party should know about them now.

Romney was asked about his taxes shortly before he left South Carolina for a high-dollar fundraiser in New York.

"What's the effective rate I've been paying? It's probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything," Romney said. "Because my last 10 years, I've - my income comes overwhelmingly from investments made in the past, rather than ordinary income or rather than earned annual income."

By his own account, Romney hasn't received a regular paycheck since 1999. That's when he left the private equity firm he founded, Bain Capital, where he became a multimillionaire. Most of Romney's taxable income comes from investing the fortune he made there. He donated income from his time running the Salt Lake City Olympics to charity.

He also told reporters Tuesday that he has donated the proceeds from the sale of his book, "No Apology," to charity.

Romney said in the Monday debate he probably would release returns because it's tradition.

"I have nothing in them that suggests there's any problem and I'm happy to do so," he said then. "I sort of feel like we're showing a lot of exposure at this point."

At the White House, Carney said that as a candidate in 2008, Obama released multiple years of tax records and has disclosed his returns annually since becoming president. He said George W. Bush and Bill Clinton did the same thing, as did "nominees for each party for years and years and years."

In a jab at the Republican front-runner, he said Romney's father, George Romney, released his own returns when he ran for the White House in 1968.
Obama has called on Congress to let Bush-era tax cuts on upper income earners expire at the end of 2012. Romney is opposed, as are most if not all of the Republicans in Congress.

In the debate Monday night, Texas Gov. Rick Perry insisted that Romney release his returns, saying that the party needs to fully scrutinize its nominee now instead of later.”

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Well, there you have it...but of course we all knew it anyway....a multiBillionaire Mitt Romney pays LESS in earnings than 99% of average Americans.....and if that ain’t corporate welfare, I don’t know what is!!

This guy has got to be audited for his last three years, and made to pay every single cent that he owes the IRS and the citizens of this country. There is nothing as disgusting as the greed of the wealthy, where whatever the amount, it is never enough.

OWS is onto the deals the wealthy corporations and the rich make with the government thru special deals, incentives, deductions, perks that average working people do not get, and it is time that the top 5% pay their share of taxes like the middle class is forced to.

Romney should produce his last three IRS returns, and be thoroughly audited for every year’s taxes since he started filing for any possible irregularity. IF he doesn’t, and is voted into the presidency, his life will be a living hell from day 1 until his resignation.

Do we really want, or would be happy with, a wealthy IRS cheat? I say NO!

 

So what, that's what Warren Buffett pays and he's behind in his taxes...plus he says charge him more, but he won't send it in.

 

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Sir or Madam;

This article is about Mitt Romney, who has refused to give his IRS returns for perusal, as traditionally has been done by other presidential candidates.

Try to focus...

 

Why does he have to wait till April to release them?

 

......

Because his auditor is working 24/7 to unload everything he can into this year's taxes to diminish the uproar it is going to cause anyway......

Poor Mitt, he was hoping no one would notice...

 

Anyone who voluntarily gives a thin dime to the government beyond what they must legally pay is a fool. Romney pays what the law requires. Good for him.

 

While I think it is absolute bs that someone can make the kind of money this man does, and pay less then I did for fy2011 (percentage wise), I do not think this makes him a criminal or deserving to be audited or any other outrageous thing you suggest. He has done nothing wrong but following tax law, similar to the companies that pay 0%.

The system is at fault, not the individuals following the law; can you blame anyone for wanting to keep more of their money? I am sure most politicians pay well under what they should actually, including the president.

A minimum tax rate for people making over xxx a year from any source would solve this problem.

 

No, it not. Here is your title...

"Romney Says He Pays US Taxes - About 15 Percent"

It say nothing about his refusal to release his IRS returns.


How many other Americans pay about 15%? Do you have any idea???

 

Link to that!!!!

 

So because other billionaires get the special low 15% tax rate that makes it OK Mitt gets it too?

Yet another example of right wing propaganda. I should keep a list.

 

Yeah, its great that folks worth hundreds of millions of dollars get to pay special low 15% tax rate on their income while people who earn their money pay up to 35%. Plus FICA.

Great if you are a trust fund baby or hedge fund managrer or Mitt Romney, I suppose.

 

acting so hesitant and tentative about releasing his tax returns that he's making it look like he has something to hide.

 

Did you pay more percentage wise on capital gains than he did, or less?
Did you pay more percentage wise on wages than he did, or less?

Companies pay zero when the either have no profit, more likely loses, or take legal credits against those profits. Like depreciating the cost of a piece of equipment. Like investing in R&D. Like hiring a Vet. Like giving out scholarships.

My goal is to make more off my investments than I do in the commissions I earn at my job. Do you object to that goal? Do you think people who attain that should be somehow have to be taxed more to make it "fair" to those who do not save and invest and build wealth?

You know those capital gains taxes are taxed first at the corporate level and then at the individual level. That $1.00 in profit first gets hit with the government taking 35% of it and then the remain $.65 goes to the stockholder who then pays another 15% on it for an effective rate of 50%. How much of that profit should government have a right to? What it they taxed your wage first at the company level by 35% and then YOU paid the personal income tax rate?

Fair?

There is the Alternative Minimum Tax. And STILL the highest earners pay the highest effective rates, pay the highest capital gains rates, pay the highest earned income rates pay the highest, a highly disproportionate, share of all taxes.

And it STILL isn't enough for some.

How about this then, a flat tax. One standard deduction for each person and then a flat tax on all sources of income no other deductions.

 

Yeah, kind of like Ubama's long form birth certificate.

 

Great plan. If your the 1%.

 

It clearly matters not to you that the rich can game the system and the rest of us can't.

 

Agreed...

... but I also think the law is broken. It is not envy that makes me suggest this it is fairness and running a functioning government, rich folks need to pay a tax rate higher than 15%.

 

Is Ubama part of the 1%?

 

Get rich and you can game the system too.

 

Multi-millionaires like Mitt get their income from capital gains. The average guys earns it working.

We get the idea that the income the multi-millionaire earns is taxed at less than half the rate.

Great plan. For the 1%.

With a 15% special tax rate for investments, no wonder that is your goal.

And so is it any surprise that so many work of the goal of making money from speculative investment rather than earning and production?

Complete bull(*)(*)(*)(*). Corporations don't pay one dime of taxes on capital gains.

So how do Mitt and Warren only pay 15%?

How about this. Mitt and Warren pay the same tax rate as folks who earn their income.

 

Thanks for the advice, Paris.

 

But mom all the other rich kids are doing it is really the argument you are presenting?

If the government was running a balanced budget, and things that needed getting done in the public sector were getting done then MAYBE MAYBE I could humor the notion of the tax code the way it is now.... but come off it, you're one of the first to scream fiscal responsibility on the spending side, and you spout such irresponsible nonsense on the revenue side... phulease.

 

Hey, demand a flat tax.

 

Isn't it everyone who lives off investment income?

Do I get a prize?