Friday, September 21, 2012

Mitt Romney's taxes

From the New York Times:
Mitt Romney paid $1.95 million in taxes on his 2011 investment income of $13.7 million
... Mr. Romney has said that he has paid at least 13 percent in federal income taxes in each of the last 10 years.
... Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann, donated about $4 million to charity in 2011, but claimed only $2.25 million as a deduction ...
So, Mitt's combined 2011 contributions to taxes and charity amount to 43.4%.  Not too shabby. Nevertheless, as might be expected, 99.9% of the comments to the NYT article express derision.

2 comments:

ChuckT said...

Yeah, but $2 million of the $4 he gave to 'charity' was actually to his own blind trust. Sure he could have claimed it, but the only reason he didn't was so that he could still say he has never payed less than a %13 tax rate.

JR said...

It's a bitch being rich, isn't it?

Political candidates have to submit to every intrusive demand from their opposition (in the case of a right-winger that includes 90% of the media)and it's never enough. On wonders why they bother running.

As for that "blind trust" I think you'll find all his assets are managed and accounted for there, including prep of tax returns. It's something rich politicians do to avoid controversy (it often invites more than it avoids so you're damned if you do and damned if you don't).