Posted on 09/22/2012 3:57:01 AM PDT by LD Jackson
Let's get this out of the way. Tell me again how Mitt Romney is a greedy rich man who hasn't paid taxes in ten years and should release his tax returns to prove Harry Reid isn't fabricating this story in his own mind. There, I said it and man, it felt good. Mitt Romney finally did what the Obama campaign has harped on and released his tax returns. Maybe not in the detail they would have liked, as that would have been more than a little foolish, but enough so that the entire world knows who has been lying and who has been telling the truth.
Here are the details of the returns.
(Mitt Romney) Regarding the newly-filed 2011 Tax Return:
- In 2011, the Romneys paid $1,935,708 in taxes on $13,696,951 in mostly investment income.
- The Romneys’ effective tax rate for 2011 was 14.1%.
- The Romneys donated $4,020,772 to charity in 2011, amounting to nearly 30% of their income.
- The Romneys claimed a deduction for $2.25 million of those charitable contributions.
Regarding the PWC letter covering the Romneys’ tax filings over 20 years, from 1990 – 2009:
- The Romneys’ generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year. The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor's statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.
- In each year during the entire 20-year period, the Romneys owed both state and federal income taxes.
- Over the entire 20-year period, the average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.20%.
- Over the entire 20-year period, the lowest annual effective federal personal tax rate was 13.66%.
- Over the entire 20-year period, the Romneys gave to charity an average of 13.45% of their adjusted gross income.
During the 20-year period covered by the PWC letter, Gov. and Mrs. Romney paid 100 percent of the taxes that they owed.
- Over the entire 20-year period, the total federal and state taxes owed plus the total charitable donations deducted represented 38.49% of total AGI.
Don't you just know this chaps the skin right off the backsides of the Obama campaign, as well as all the liberals who have been running their mouths about how out-of-touch Mitt Romney is? They have complaining for months that Mitt Romney hasn't paid his fair share of taxes, but the former Governor of Massachusetts has proven them wrong. On top of that, he has proven himself to be a generous and kind man. Read the details of the quote I have provided. Mitt and Ann Romney gave almost 30% of their 2011 income to charity. Details of the other years' tax returns show them to be similar. By way of comparison, the Obamas didn't quite measure up to the standards set by the Romneys. According to Politico, via Wake Up America, Barack and Michelle Obama only gave 21.8% of their 2011 income to charity. That is no small chump change, but it goes to show you who is paying their fair share and who is willing to give above and beyond the call of duty. And before some liberal reads this and declares I am being unfair to the President and the First Lady, I'll just say Obama is the one who has hammered on this for months. Let him now eat his words and take his own medicine.
To help us digest this information, let's look at Erika Johnsen's take on this.
(Hot Air) So, let’s just take a second here to process this. Mitt Romney, who is ostensibly uncaring, out-of-touch, and disdainful of poor people, gave more than 13 percent of his income (amounting to millions and millions of dollars) over twenty years to charity, and didn’t even always take the full tax deduction. (The bastard!) By at least one count, the average effective federal tax rate for Americans is 11 percent — and Romney’s average annual rate was 20 percent, also amounting to millions and millions of dollars that went into the federal government’s coffers. He has done nothing wrong or shady, unless you consider being a wildly excellent businessman to be a vice, and the finger-pointers now look pretty darn dumb.I couldn't agree more with what Ms. Johnsen has written. I'd like to know what a "fair share" really looks like.If this isn’t it, can somebody please explain to me exactly what it is that a “fair share” is supposed to look like? Are we supposed to detest rich people, or should we admire them? Will the real Barack Obama please stand up?
The yahoos will believe only what fits their agenda. Facts? We don’t need no stinking facts! :)
I can’t wait to see how they try to use these returns to make Romney look bad. No doubt, they will come up with something.
They have. Romney was criticized for giving so much to charity, thus reducing his tax liability and depriving the government of money that could be better spent by the bureaucracy.
I hadn’t heard that, but it doesn’t surprise me. I knew they would come up with something to criticize him for.
Just watched the local TV news. They did a fairly long piece about Romney’s taxes. The reporter went out on the street and asked people, in his former home town (Belmont, MA), how they felt about him paying so little in taxes.
I’m not concerned with what Romney does with his money...I am concerned about what Obama does with our money!
In giving more than 4 million to charity, even though much of it went to the Mormon Church, you can rest assured that the contributions did more for the USA, than had the money gone to the US treasury.
ABC’s morning show did a nice hit piece on Romney for allegedly tweaking his tax return so he could pay a higher rate. The disgusting thing about this is that we wouldn’t expect anything less from ABC, NBC, CBS and the rest of the liberal hacks.
That’s a joke, right?
And then he did the dastardly trick of actually paying more in taxes than he was legally bound to do - first the rich don't pay their fair share and that's bad, then Romney pays more than he needs to and that is bad...
I can't wait for him to point it out and listen to their Carney-Bagda Bob spins on the topic. I think Mitt has some tricks up his sleeve that will serve as a new form of October surprises.
Harry Reid gets to say what he wants with impunity as long as he says it from the well of the Senate. Would he care to slander Romney without hiding in the well???
Mitt Romney got rich by working in the private sector.
How did Harry Reid get rich? He has been a senator for years, he has a salary but somehow he became a millionaire.
I think it is time someone asked Reid the question.
Excellent blog post!
I think that is a fair question. You have people on this site praising Romney for paying more than he had to but it appears it was a PR move.
Let’s see if he did it before he was running for President.
Apparently I’m supposed to be more angry about what Romney does with his money than what Obama does with mine.
Channel 4 news (CBS) here in Miami did a graphic yesterday evening (several times) on Romney’s taxes. They gave the $13.7M income figure. They gave the amount paid in taxes, and then the14% roughly paid in taxes (I don’t remember the exact figure). The clear implication was that he got away with paying lower taxes.
Nowhere was it pointed out that he also donated about $4M to various charities, and that he did not claim as much as he could have for those charities. Of course they also did not point out Biden’s 0.15% in contributions to charities.
Channel 4 lies (and Elliot Rodriguez is one of the worst).
“The Romneys’ effective tax rate for 2011 was 14.1%. “
This is based on Adjusted Gross Income and not Taxable Income. Taxable Income is what is taxable not Adjusted Gross Income. Based on Taxable Income the effective tax rate was 21.49% . Should be pointed out that Romney’s 2011 tax return shows that he had $6.8 million in capital gains roughly 50% of his Adjusted Gross Income. Capital Gain taxes are capped at 15%. Romney also included in Itemized Deductions a total of $1.541 million in (state) local taxes, that included $1.327 million state income taxes and $217,728 in real estate taxes. So it is just rubbish to infer Romney is not paying his fair share of taxes.
Should also be noted that Obama has not been nearly as successful with his investments as in 2011 he claimed a capital loss of $3000 a loss carryover from the tax year 2009. On 1/29/09 he sold 9472 shares of Bank Hawaii at a loss of $125,879. He apparently inherited the stock from his maternal grandmother Madelyn Payne Dunham who was employed by the bank. She was reported to have died November 3, 2008.
http://www.taxhistory.org/www/website.nsf/Web/PresidentialTaxReturns/
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