Replies

“It was mostly capital gains taxes.”

So Romney paid 14% on an income of 13.5 million bucks. Somehow that doesn’t seem right. During my peak earning years in the 80’s and 90’s I was paying about one third of my income to Uncle Sam, and I wasn’t making near what Romney is raking in.

And I keep hearing that we need to eliminate taxes on capital gains entirely, which would reduce Romney’s tax rate down to near zero.

I remember when it was a radical idea to have a flat tax so that the rich did not pay a higher tax rate than the middle class. Now that seems they deserve to be taxed less.

Romney did not write the tax laws (he was never a member of the House of Representatives). He is evil for paying the amount of taxes the law requires?

Do you think obama pays more tax than the law requires him to pay?

Would you be more likely to vote for Romney for President if he overpaid his income tax because he was too stupid to hire competent tax accountants? Are you going to vote for obama because he pays a higher tax rate? Are you sure he does? If so, is he really as stupid as you are?

Are you advocating that there should be no difference in Taxation for Capital Gains and Earned Income? Capital Gains Income comes from risk based Investments using Capital that has already been Taxed. Earned Income is not a Risk based investment.

Not to change the subject, but I remember then Senator Obama telling a Interviewer that he wanted Capital Gains Taxes Raised to 25%. When he was informed by the Interviewer that Tax Revenue to the United States Treasury would decrease if that was done, Obama replied “it's all about fairness”.

Kind of reminds me of the Will Smith Interview in France earlier this year. After Will Smith told the French Journalist that he thought the American “Rich” should be Taxed at a much higher Rate, the Journalist told him that the “Rich” in France will be taxed at a 75% Rate.

Good old Will looked shocked and said “God Bless America”. A real principled Liberal we got there.

No offense, but your entire post illustrates exactly what is wrong with even many conservatives when it comes to tax policy. This fixation on how much someone paid in taxes as a percentage of their income is large-scale, institutional envy at its root. Even a "flat tax" as it is popularly known today is unjust at its core.

Let's use a simple example of a flat tax rate of 20% on all income with no deductions. If I earn $1M I pay $200,000 in taxes on that income. If you earn $50,000 you pay $5,000 in taxes on your income. Now let's suppose I live next door to you, have a similar house, have a similar family in terms of household size, and use public amenities such as streets and parks to the same extent that you do. What rationale is there for me to be carrying a tax burden that is forty times your tax burden?

For a true "flat tax" the Federal government would simply take its budget, divide it by the number of people in the country, and send everyone a bill. If it spends $3T and there are 300 million people in this country, then everyone gets a bill for $10,000. Case closed. It's that simple.