Romney reveals his tax rate is close to 15%

[soundforbjt]

True, he came from very rich white grandparents who bought his way into good schools.

Somehow, that is much like all the others...except most of them had their rich parents do it instead of their rich grandparents.

Still spreading this lie huh?

 

[sactoking]

Mitt Romney revealed for the first time today that his effective tax rate is "closer to 15 percent," suggesting that he pays less in taxes than many middle income Americans despite being worth an estimated $250 million.

If you're a "middle income" American and you pay more than 15% you're doing it wrong. Since 2006 my effective tax rates on AGIs between $66,000 and $79,000 have been, in order: 11.19%, 9.86%, 9.86%, 4.96%, 3.27%.

 

[Thump553]

True, he came from very rich white grandparents who bought his way into good schools.

Somehow, that is much like all the others...except most of them had their rich parents do it instead of their rich grandparents.

I called you out on this exact same BS about a week ago. Obama's grandparents were not rich by any stretch. After returning home from WWII, his grandfather worked a series of furniture store jobs. His grandmom started as a bank clerk and worked her way up in the good old American way (talent, ambition and hard work) to head of the escrow department of her bank-middle management position. Obama's drive and scholarships got him where he is, not a silver spoon.

If you have ANY FACTUAL BASIS whatsoever for the delusions you continue to spew as facts, set out the specific facts.

 

[cybrsage]

Still spreading this lie huh?

Several incidents in Indonesia left Dunham afraid for her son's safety and education so, at the age of 10, Barack was sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. His mother and sister later joined them.

Excelling in School
While living with his grandparents, Obama enrolled in the esteemed Punahou Academy,

http://www.biography.com/people/barack-obama-12782369

Hmmm....sounds like a costly private school. How much does it cost to enroll in the school for the 2011 school year?

Tuition for the 2011 – 2012 school year for Grades K – 12 is $18,450.

http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=1793

Of course, the cost was lower back when Obama was enrolled at 10 years old...but it would have still been VERY expensive back then. Only the rich could afford to send their kids to this private school.

But you keep pretending Obama paid his way by recycling aluminum beer cans he found in the alleys when he ate out of dumpsters because he was so poor...


EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot. Harvard Law School is not cheap either. Unless you can show Obama took student loans (I could not find this info), that means he either got in due to his skin color or his rich grandparents paid for it. I personally think it was his rich grandparents..maybe you think it was his skin color....or recycling cans...

 

[zanejohnson]

I called you out on this exact same BS about a week ago. Obama's grandparents were not rich by any stretch. After returning home from WWII, his grandfather worked a series of furniture store jobs. His grandmom started as a bank clerk and worked her way up in the good old American way (talent, ambition and hard work) to head of the escrow department of her bank-middle management position. Obama's drive and scholarships got him where he is, not a silver spoon.

If you have ANY FACTUAL BASIS whatsoever for the delusions you continue to spew as facts, set out the specific facts.

yep he's. just very intelligent...which is why the gop is having such a hard time finding anyone to compare intelligence wise/not get made a fool of in a debate

 

[zanejohnson]

http://www.biography.com/people/barack-obama-12782369

Hmmm....sounds like a costly private school. How much does it cost to enroll in the school for the 2011 school year?


http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=1793

Of course, the cost was lower back when Obama was enrolled at 10 years old...but it would have still been VERY expensive back then. Only the rich could afford to send their kids to this private school.

But you keep pretending Obama paid his way by recycling aluminum beer cans he found in the alleys when he ate out of dumpsters because he was so poor...


EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot. Harvard Law School is not cheap either. Unless you can show Obama took student loans (I could not find this info), that means he either got in due to his skin color or his rich grandparents paid for it. I personally think it was his rich grandparents..maybe you think it was his skin color....or recycling cans...

he actually just finished paying off school loans....Burns you up doesn't it....


"ANYONE BUT OBAMA" i don't understand how he arouses such hate from the right...actually I do..but you'd never understand.

 

[palehorse]

Anyone who makes their income primarily from investments will pay less that some one who makes their from a salary. It doesn't matter if its $10K or $10M. Anyone who can't understand why this is a good thing never invested a cent and wants this country's economy to fail. If there is no one investing, we are all screwed, plain and simple.

I think most critics of low CG/dividend taxes simply fail to understand the global economic benefits of encouraging short-term investing, versus long-term, specifically -- or, to put it conversely, the severe economic damage that would result from short-term investors dumping all of their money into long-term investments, instead, to avoid annual CG/dividend tax hits.

 

[blackangst1]

If you're a "middle income" American and you pay more than 15% you're doing it wrong. Since 2006 my effective tax rates on AGIs between $66,000 and $79,000 have been, in order: 11.19%, 9.86%, 9.86%, 4.96%, 3.27%.

THIS.

 

[Fausto]

http://www.biography.com/people/barack-obama-12782369

Hmmm....sounds like a costly private school. How much does it cost to enroll in the school for the 2011 school year?


http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=1793

Of course, the cost was lower back when Obama was enrolled at 10 years old...but it would have still been VERY expensive back then. Only the rich could afford to send their kids to this private school.

But you keep pretending Obama paid his way by recycling aluminum beer cans he found in the alleys when he ate out of dumpsters because he was so poor...


EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot. Harvard Law School is not cheap either. Unless you can show Obama took student loans (I could not find this info), that means he either got in due to his skin color or his rich grandparents paid for it. I personally think it was his rich grandparents..maybe you think it was his skin color....or recycling cans...

You are either trolling or poor if you think this somehow puts him anywhere near Romney in terms of upbringing.

 

[Throckmorton]

http://www.biography.com/people/barack-obama-12782369

Hmmm....sounds like a costly private school. How much does it cost to enroll in the school for the 2011 school year?


http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=1793

Of course, the cost was lower back when Obama was enrolled at 10 years old...but it would have still been VERY expensive back then. Only the rich could afford to send their kids to this private school.

But you keep pretending Obama paid his way by recycling aluminum beer cans he found in the alleys when he ate out of dumpsters because he was so poor...


EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot. Harvard Law School is not cheap either. Unless you can show Obama took student loans (I could not find this info), that means he either got in due to his skin color or his rich grandparents paid for it. I personally think it was his rich grandparents..maybe you think it was his skin color....or recycling cans...

His grandparents weren't rich. They were upper middle class and they got there through hard work not White People Affirmative Action.

 

[Ausm]

I diverted? I simply took the exact same question you did and turned it around? So its okay for you to ask that kind of question but not for the rest of us? I was simply pointing out the double standard, and I guess here I am pointing out another double standard. Quadruple standard detected I guess. 🙄

Full of shit like normal Biff...Troll on buddy.

 

[Fern]

This part bothers me a little:



So we'll see one return, done in anticipation of being released to the public. I'd rather see his older returns from back before he knew he would run for POTUS and have to release them for public view.

- wolf

Damn good point because those previous tax returns wouldn't be a "sanitized" version.

No, it's not a good point.

I saw Lawrence O'Donnell on his show last night claiming that Romney's accountants were going to rework his tax return to show a higher tax rate etc. Where the h3ll do these people get this stuff? (short answer is that they're making up complete crap for political purposes)

This is silly. Tax CPA's have a term for tax planning after the year has ended - it's called fraud.

And given that Romney is an investor, he has little-to-no (probably 'no') ability to tax plan anyway. As some of you who have brokerage accounts or schedule k-1's know you receive a form after the close of year telling you the amounts of income and where to put them on your tax return. There is no flexibility, no choice. The IRS receives a copy of your form and they will run (a computer program for matching) your tax return against this info to make sure it was done properly.

Also, IIRC, Romney has had his assets in a blind trust for years. He has no knowledge or say, therefore no ability to plan or manipulate.

Romney's been running for office since about 1994 in one capacity or another. He's been running for President since '06 or '07, to think he's suddenly going to now start manipulating this one tax return makes no sense anyway.

So, I really wouldn't worry about some 'phonied up' tax return because it's really not possible.

And unless he's in some mostly 'vanilla type' stuff I'd be surprised if he can have his tax return ready by April. Partnerships and S corps usually don't get their tax accounting done until March or April (sometimes they extend until the Fall) making it difficult, if not impossible, for the individuals involved to have returns done by April.

Fern

 

[Fern]

This is exactly the type of person we can NOT have as president. This person doesn't live in the reality that 99.9% of the population lives in. We need a highly intelligent person who understands the problems and what the average american goes through.

Seriously?

Pretty much all our Presidents have been rich. Heck Obama is rich. Didn't he make $5 million last year or so?

I don't think we've ever had an 'average' person as President.

Fern

 

[Fern]

It wasn't gains on Romney's capital, it was money he was paid for managing other people's capital. He should pay income taxes on it just like everyone else who gets paid for providing a service does.

Source? He doesn't work at Bain anymore so I'm not sure why you would assume his income is coming from carried interest. It's possible he's still considered a General Partner in some of their funds but I haven't seen that discussed anywhere.

I don't believe Romney has ever been a fund manager, so he would not have ever benefited from the carried interest provision.

Fern

 

[blackangst1]

This is exactly the type of person we can NOT have as president. This person doesn't live in the reality that 99.9% of the population lives in. We need a highly intelligent person who understands the problems and what the average american goes through.

Really? You think Jim the plumber making $55k/year living in an upside down house, $20k in credit card debt who drinks Bud Light in the local bar on Friday night would be a better choice? Because of his, you know, life experience?

🙄

 

[RabidMongoose]

EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot. Harvard Law School is not cheap either. Unless you can show Obama took student loans (I could not find this info), that means he either got in due to his skin color or his rich grandparents paid for it. I personally think it was his rich grandparents..maybe you think it was his skin color....or recycling cans...

Obama only paid off his student loans somewhat recently, I believe it was from money received from his books.

 

[cybrsage]

You are either trolling or poor if you think this somehow puts him anywhere near Romney in terms of upbringing.

Other than you, who ever said it did?

 

[cybrsage]

His grandparents weren't rich. They were upper middle class and they got there through hard work not White People Affirmative Action.

Upper middle class can afford those rates for a grade school? Hmm...maybe, since rich does not start until...what did Obama say, $200,000? $60,000 in 1975 dollars is equal to $201,111 dollars in today's dollars...so they only had to make $60k a year to be rich back then if we use Obama's standards.

How much did they make back then, any idea? I say it was most likely at or above the $60k mark so they could afford to send Barack to a private school rather than to a public school. Public schools are free, private are not.

 

[cybrsage]

Obama only paid off his student loans somewhat recently, I believe it was from money received from his books.

Yes, you are correct about this. The Obama's combines (him and his wife) income in 2005 was $1.7 million (Snopes rounds it down when they should have rounded it up). He made most of it from his book, and used it to pay off his student loans.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/money.asp

That is actually a bad financial decision. The interest rate on student loans is super super low...it would be a better choice to invest the money and remain slowly paying off the very low interest rate loan. But to each their own, many people simply want the debt gone.

 

[Anarchist420]

Seriously?

Pretty much all our Presidents have been rich. Heck Obama is rich. Didn't he make $5 million last year or so?

I don't think we've ever had an 'average' person as President.

Fern

Lincoln was always average in wealth. Grant was also if I'm not mistaken.

 

[blackangst1]

Lincoln was always average in wealth. Grant was also if I'm not mistaken.

There are exceptions to every rule.
The exceptions MAKE the rule.
Generalities are generally true.

All that stuff.

 

[cybrsage]

he actually just finished paying off school loans....Burns you up doesn't it....

Why would it do that? Why would it bother me that someone paid off their student loans?

 

[JS80]

Seriously?

Pretty much all our Presidents have been rich. Heck Obama is rich. Didn't he make $5 million last year or so?

I don't think we've ever had an 'average' person as President.

Fern

Fern, didn't you know? When Obama eventually lives off his investments, he's going to elect to pay his investment income at the ordinary income rate.

 

[NeoV]

there is so much fail in this thread it's impossible to even pick a few out

 

[Throckmorton]

Upper middle class can afford those rates for a grade school? Hmm...maybe, since rich does not start until...what did Obama say, $200,000? $60,000 in 1975 dollars is equal to $201,111 dollars in today's dollars...so they only had to make $60k a year to be rich back then if we use Obama's standards.

How much did they make back then, any idea? I say it was most likely at or above the $60k mark so they could afford to send Barack to a private school rather than to a public school. Public schools are free, private are not.

Even if the tuition was equivalent to what it is now, no you didn't have to be rich. There are plenty of people in Hawaii right now who are upper middle class and send their kids to private schools. Here is what you don't realize... Public schools in Hawaii are bad, on par with inner city schools on the mainland. A lot of families sacrifice so that their kids can get a good education. Public school is virtually not an option if you want your kids to succeed, or your grandkids in Obama's case.