Romney Paid 13.9%

No wonder why he is refusing to reveal his taxes from 2000 to 2009. There are probably years he paid next to nothing, if not literally nothing. It would be very embarassing to see that information especially in these very difficult times for the middle class.
His 2010 taxes were put together knowing he was running for President and they were going to probably be made public.



Livewire
01-24-2012 12:24 AM ∞ t witter
Breaking: Romney's Tax Rate Last Year Was 13.9%
Mitt Romney paid 13.9 percent of his income in taxes last year, according to his 2010-2011 tax return, first reported by Reuters. Most of the income was from investments and capital gains.

Reuters reports:

(Reuters) - 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.
Tags: 2012 U.S. -- Sahil Kapur

SiriuslyWrong is rethinking his profession.


Here is a bloggers take on this: SiriuslyWrong calls it class warfare.

I fail to understand why investment income should be taxes at a lower rate than wages. You can make all the economic arguments you want, but there is something morally wrong with millionares paying less than 15% taxes while my effective rate is 20% or higher as a school teacher. People who WORK for a living ought to pay less than people who INVEST for a living. Please don't tell me this is just an issue of "class envy." It is a MORAL issue, a PRACTICAL issue, and a FAIRNESS issue. Romney doesn't need any more financial help, but lots of working (and unemployed) Americans do.

Among the details that may spur fresh debate: The returns show that Romney was able to cut his taxable income by $4.8 million because of losses carried over from previous years. Under the tax code, taxpayers who lose money from their investments can deduct those losses against their capital gains. If a taxpayer ends up losing so much that the losses outweigh the gains in a given year, the rest of those losses can be carried to the next year and subtracted from income.

The returns confirm, however, that Romney continues to benefit from his association with Bain Capital, the private-equity firm he founded in 1984 and left in 1999. His earnings through Bain have drawn controversy because they are treated as capital gains rather than wages and thus benefit from being taxed at the lower rate of 15 percent.

Critics say such income, known as “carried interest,” should not be counted as investment earnings because private-equity partners are mostly relying on the money of others rather than their own. The returns show that Romney earned more than $13 million in “carried interest” over the past two years.

Complicated as they are, the tax returns provide only a partial picture of Romney’s wealth. They don’t show the full extent of his net assets, which are estimated to be worth between $190 million and $250 million. Romney has an individual retirement account worth between $20.7 million and $101.6 million, according to his 2011 financial disclosure. He also has a blind trust for his wife, Ann, containing $10 million.

Does SiriuslyWrong think that Romney should reveal his tax returns from 2000 to 2009?

I hope you will respond to this one day.