As Brian notes below, here’s what Mitt Romney had to say about his effective tax ratetoday:
“What’s the effective rate I’ve been paying? It’s probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything. Because my last 10 years, I’ve—my income comes overwhelmingly from some investments made in the past, whether ordinary income or earned annually. I got a little bit of income from my book, but I gave that all away. And then I get speakers fees from time to time, but not very much.”
I’ve already heard a lot of chatter from politicos that fallout from this comment, and continuing pressure on Romney to release his tax returns, are going to make the Bain attacks look like so many slaps with a wet noodle.
I’m not so sure. I doubt Romney’s reluctance to release his returns is due to his not wanting voters to find out he’s rich. The game is up on that one. I suspect it’s more like there are some line items that could be politically exploitable — think John Kerry’s boat or John McCain’s many houses. And if it’s true pays an effective rate near 15 percent, that doesn’t strike me as particularly damning either, considering the average effective income tax rate in this country is 11.08%.
In fact, I think Romney has a pretty good story to tell about the ways he has and has not put food on the table, especially in contrast to President Obama. Romney can point out that President Obama became a millionaire while in elected office, and largely on the strength of his memoir (including $70 grand in sales to the State Department while in the Oval Office), while Romney made his money in the business world, took no salary as governor of Massachusetts or head of the Olympics, and donated the proceeds from his book (along with millions more, as Romney tithes) to charity. Romney has also said he would donate his federal salary if elected president, and could go one better were he to commit to, say, asking all executive appointees of means to work gratis.
Notice how absent the “tea party” is from this race.
What a joke!
That 15% is on interest/dividends money made from savings previously taxed at who-knows-what-rate.
Our interest/dividend income makes the difference between carrying excellent medical insurance VS long waits and clinic MDs.
Our interest/dividend income means we will not have to worry about losing the roof over our heads for the rest of our lives.
Our interest/dividend income makes the difference between great quality foods vs cheap and/or processed foods that are less healthy.
Obama wants to punish the frugal people who now are in a position to not have to work WHILE – at the same time – they are not dependent on the gov’t dole.
These are the people Obama cannot manipulate.
He wants everyone on his plantation.
There’s a taxation rate continuum involved:
Employees who actually work for a living pay 7.65% in FICA and Medicare taxes, in addition to being subject to a federal tax rate ranging from 10% to 35% on the same money. Whatever they might earn in bank interest is taxed as regular income.
Billionaires and multi-millionaires living entirely on investment income pay no FICA or Medicare taxes, and only 15% on their investment income.
Pirates and those engaged exclusively in other criminal activities generally have an effective federal tax rate of zero.
It does occur to me to wonder why–with only a tiny fraction of his annual income–I should be paying a higher percentage in taxes than Mitt Romney.
I think it’s interesting that it’s not democrats who are hammering Romney on the matter of his tax rate and return–it’s other republican contenders.