Is Mitt Romney a 47 percenter ?
Romney paid 14.1% of his income and capital gains as tax in 2011. But I wonder I hope I wish that all of that was capital gains tax and none of it was income tax. What goes around comes around and he who equates paying zero federal income tax with paying no taxes had better hope that he didn’t manage to disguise quite all of his income as capital gains.
He can’t simultaneously pretend that the payroll tax doesn’t exist and that the capital gains tax does exist.
In the past, Romney paid income tax on speaker’s fees, but he spent 2011 speaking for free (or for campaign contributions). He certainly has capital income. But he could have sheltered it.
The fact is that his tax rate is lower than the capital gains tax rate. He certainly didn’t declare much income.
Oh I wish I wish he declared zero.
update: The political cartoon version by Tony Auth via Anne Laurie at balloon juice
Not to be a dweeb, but just to be a dweeb, Tony why is that US soldier in Afghanistan firing an AK-47 instead of an m16 ?
No wage income, but apparently some interest income. I am beginning to think the reason he is running is to become one of the 47.
Do you understand the difference between average tax rate and marginal tax rate?
oh, boy, sammy, i sure do.
so when i find out the average effectivetax rate and the top marginal rate are not the same, i stop feeling sorry for the poor rich, Opressed so hard they cannot stand…
and have no trouble recommending their effective tax rate be increased enough to pay down the deficit in until it is no longer a factor politically.
i am not sure this is necessary as a matter of economics, and i have absolutely no desire to “soak the rich.” i’d just like to shut up the lying politicians and the silly people who believe them.
The answer to my question is no he is not a 47 percenter. The reason I think I now know this and didn’t when I posted is that I know know he could have even paid less if he hadn’t deferred deductions. I think that, if all taxes were at the capital gains rate,that would be irrelevant.
@Lord I was not sure about regular income tax on capital income. It might have all been carried interest and qualified dividends (after deductions which might cancel ordinary interest).
@Sammy. Yes I do know the difference between marginal and average. Do you know the difference between a question mark and a period ?
If I had thought that the 14.1 % was marginal, then I would have been slightly more confident that the income tax liability was zero (although the marginal income tax on income under $70,700 for a married couple is 15% or less).
My question was motivated by the fact that I don’t know of marginal tax rates on significant (to Romney) income or capital gains at a rate lower than 15% so the income taxed at a higher rate must have been insignificant (to Romney) by uh you know averaging.