http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/five-shocking-facts-from-mitt-romney-s-tax-return?cid=dflo-facebook-12412-RomneyTaxReturn13.9% tax rate on Romney's income of $21.7 million in 2010.... It isn't "wages" it's "capital gains." He has no real wages (he does but they're nothing compared to what he actually makes) and thus doesn't really pay social security taxes, medicaid taxes, or any sort of payroll taxes. Moreover, he doesn't really pay income taxes because "capital gains" aren't "income as defined by IRS code 61(a). Basically, he gets a crapload of money which [cough] isn't income [cough] and legally doesn't pay income taxes on it. Rather he pays the significantly lower "captial gainst taxes, which due to George W Bush are about 15% and lower for Romney due to deductions.... Not surprisingly, Both
Romney's and
Gingrich's proposed plans have them paying even less taxes than they currently do....
Why am I, and indeed why are most people, paying a higher percentage of my/their income as taxes than Romney is?
This is how the rich screw the system. They often don't pay income taxes, because they reclassify their income as "not income." At the same time they decry the "complexity" of the current tax code while being the ones who take advantage of it. Romney's tax return for one year was 550 pages. Most people use a 1040ez or a 1040 and do not exceed 10 pages with deductions and attachments. 550 pages to save millions in taxes? He should be grateful, because that's a bargain if ever there was one....
Keep in mind this is total bullshit with an easy solution. He doesn't personally hold anything at all in his own name. It's all held in corporations. The corporations are separate entities from him and that means his corporations have to give him money in some form for it to make sense. Simply say that income is not "capital gains," by redefining the tax code and tax it as income, because that's what it is.
There actually is a legitimate use for capital gains as an accounting measure. This is not it.... He does "technically" have "income" on his Schedule C as a speaking and director fee, but it's really nothing comparatively.....