Posted on 04/13/2012 5:29:46 PM PDT by NaturalBornConservative
By: Larry Walker, Jr.
There's no way Obama's secretary paid a higher effective tax rate than the Obamas. You don't believe it? Are income taxes such a mystery that we can't find out? Well, let's run the numbers and see.
According to Jake Tapper of ABC News, Mr. Obama released his 2011 federal income tax today, with he and his wife reporting an adjusted gross income of $789,674. The Obamas paid $162,074 in total tax – an effective federal income tax rate of 20.5%.
The White House also reported that President Obama’s secretary, Anita Decker Breckenridge, makes $95,000 a year. White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage told ABC News that Breckenridge “pays a slightly higher rate this year on her substantially lower income, which is exactly why we need to reform our tax code and ask the wealthiest to pay their fair share.”
The only problem with this story is that Amy Brundage doesn't know how to compute a tax return, or an effective tax rate. If Ms. Breckenridge were single, made wages of $95,000, and had no other dependents or deductions, her standard deduction would have been $5,800 and her personal exemption $3,700. So taking Ms. Breckenridge's income of $95,000, and subtracting her deductions of $9,500 results in taxable income of $85,500 and an income tax of $17,564 (click the tax return image below to enlarge). Thus, her effective tax rate is 18.4% (17,564 / 95,000). The last time I checked 18.4% was less than, not greater than 20.5%.
Is the Obama Administration so delusional that it believes the American public doesn't understand basic math? Get a clue! In my opinion we're all paying way too much for the incompetence of this government. The mainstream media should be ashamed for not verifying the numbers. And Obama's definitely on the wrong track, one which will fortunately lead to the end of his short and sorry career. That suits me fine.
Can someone tell me why a secretary is making $95,000.00 ???And I’m sure she’s just one of several.
I doubt they put any such thought behind it. It’s more likely that her return was prepared by Timothy Franz Geithner, or another Obama Administration incompetent. Actually they’re using the same old leftist stragegy — Lie Big, Lie First, and Repeat the Lie, Repeat the Lie, Repeat the Lie, and eventually people will believe it.
Meanwhile, Obama jumped through every possible loophole he could without risking an audit. The effective rate mentioned on the Obamas return, which is public information, is clearly taken directly from the return (I checked) — total tax divided by adjusted gross income, so I’m taking the lie at its bald-faced value.
Actually they’re using the same old leftist “strategy” — Lie Big, Lie First, and Repeat the Lie, Repeat the Lie, Repeat the Lie, and eventually people will believe it.
Something is puzzling me and perhaps you can help. The 0 and his wife—do they file one form together or do they each file a form? From what I have read they each gifted each of their daughters $12,000 for a total of $24,000 each or $48,000 altogether. It is my understanding that being first lady is an unpaid position so what was her source of income that she could make these gifts to her daughters? If she doesn’t have a separate source of income and the gifts were deducted from the form filed for the couple wouldn’t that be way over the legal limit they could deduct? I’m sorry if I am asking dumb questions but I have no idea how American income tax works.
Married filing jointly allows double the gift limit.
Thanks.That’s really nice for them since the gifts are being taken from the same pot of money to which she added nothing. I did find the tax forms and as far as I could tell she had no income.
“Married” means half his income and debts belongs to her, same as any other married couple. Are you dismissing the value of mothers who are homemakers and don’t work outside the home ?
But you raise another point the media missed. The Obamas file a joint income tax return. The tax rates for married couples are lower than the rates for those who are single or file separately. So if his secretary files as single, her tax rate would be higher even with less income than a married couple, but under the circumstances it doesn't matter, she could not have paid a higher effective tax rate than the Obamas regardless of her filing status.
Thank you for that very nice explanation.I have been suddenly in the hospital since Thursday so I wasn’t able to make any response till now.
You’re welcome hope you’re better now. I noticed that too when I was looking over the data and wanted an explanation. It took a while to come up with what I did. It’s actually pretty deep, as in almost completely buried.
Oops, I thought I was responding to another comment. You’re welcome though, and actually I knew this off the top of my head.
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