Captain Cheesestick

I must say I did enjoy the joke today that perhaps Romney could show Timothy Geithner how to fill out his tax return.

Leslie

The thing is, it's not going to change anybody from a Republican to a Dem ... it's just going to make them vote for a worse Republican than him.

Captain Cheesestick

That's exactly why I don't get the weird reaction by the left here. It has absolutely no bearing to primary voting Republicans what he pays in taxes. None.

fatbrit

Goes with the other stunning headlines:

President is rich m-f.
President born with silver spoon.
President has type A personality and prone to infidelities.

Strangely enough, Obama currently appears the only recent president to buck all of these.

Brigette

I'm interested in the offshore accounts in Cayman Islands and Switerzland (which he closed upon advice according to Huffington Post).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1225247.html
Also interested to hear now what he has to say about Freddie & Fannie now that we know he had investments in the firm

Tegwyn

I can't wait to see Obama out the door. So, I do a bit of what Romney does. Paid my initial 28% tax. Invested and built up a decent investment portfolio and I pay 15% on capital gains. That money was already taxed once before I decided to turn it around in investments. I have been doing this for the past 30 years with the whole intention of having a decent retirement account at the end. Now I am semi-retired and as such begin pulling somewhat from my savings. This is now taxed at a significantly lower rate as my income has fallen accordingly. It is not a crime to pay a lower tax on investment returns. Why do people burn when those that work hard to make their money work for them enjoy the fruits of their labour? I come from a blue collar background and am proud of my own accomplishments. Slow and steady but independent because of it.

Bob

True....but a little galling to see how little is income tax and how much he's able to shift into lower tax brackets by moving it from income to investments.

Be daft for anyone to pay more than they owe, as he mentions, but it's a little sad how low that amount can be as a %.

Michael

Not one single democrat has proposed rasing capital gains or qualified dividend taxes above 15% for your tax bracket. However Romney has proposed additional income tax cuts of $600 billion per year. Even eliminating medicare completely won't pay for those tax cuts. So would you feel pretty well off if you no longer would be able to get medicare when you reach 65?

zargof

Considering the rhetoric for not raising taxes on the rich is that it will stifle job creation, the fact we now have the numbers for how much Romney has earned for the last two years as well as how much tax he has paid, surely the obvious question is exactly how many jobs he has created. If it is the case that he has created a lot of jobs then it provides a good case study for the Republican argument, however, if it turns out he hasn't created any jobs, then it exposes the job creation argument as BS.

Michael

Doesn't receiving capital gains and dividends count towards creating jobs? Don't you just extrapolate that? I also receive dividends but I doubt I ever created a single job with my dividends.

Lion in Winter

Agreed, but this isn't peculiar to Romney. It's part of the inequality of income that is becoming worse and worse.

Apparently 10% of people with jobs are getting over 49% of the amount paid out in wages nationally. In terms of wealth, the top 1% controls over 34% of the nation's wealth, and the top 10% controls about 74% of it.

Giantaxe

Doesn't Obamacare subject capital gains to Medicare tax?

Giantaxe

We're not just talking about the Republican primaries though are we?

Personally, I think there is a good argument to be had as to whether capital investments create jobs more than, say, labour or other forms of investment, and whether having lower tax rates on capital gains is thus justified in terms of taxation. I'm very unconvinced. And that's before I see the societal effects of having more wealth end up in fewer hands.

Michael

Yes, above $250,000 but I don't believe that has kicked in yet and that is probably why Bachmann claimed that it has to be 2012 or never.

Tegwyn

Should the changes happen in medicare as will most probably be expected, I will probably not be entitled to much if any medicare. We also invested heavily in insurance policies to protect against much of what could be a significant financial hit with catastrophic illness. My initial motivation for investing was for savings before I appreciated the tax havens that come with some of them. I started really small and slowly built myself up. My siblings in the UK are now very much dependents on Britain's social services and they were initially far better off than I ever was. I don't knock people that make it, I would rather learn how they do it.