From Ian Reifowitz cross posted at Daily Kos
The latest news is that Barack Obama has encouraged Mitt Romney to release five additional years of tax returns and has promised in return to ask for no more than that.
Yesterday Romney said he looked at his returns going back ten years and that he paid "at least 13%" in taxes in every year.
Let's take him at his word for now. Anywhere near 13% on tens of millions of dollars of income every year is still absurdly low. Take a look at Barack Obama's federal tax returns over the past 12 years (Warning: I'm no tax lawyer. I just divided Adjusted Gross Income by Total Tax). Here's the rate he paid:
Year Rate
2011 20.5%
2010 26.2%
2009 32.5%
2008 32.2%
2007 33.8%
2006 28.1%
2005 33.0%
2004 19.4%
2003 21.8%
2002 26.6%
2001 31.6%
2000 26.5%
Obama had two years just above or below 20%, and another just below 22%. The other nine years he paid "at least" 26%, with five of those years coming in around 32-33%.
Mitt Romney paid "at least 13%" on an income that almost certainly dwarfs that of the (still well-off) Obamas. That fact highlights the absurdly REGRESSIVE nature of our tax code. How can our system allow a multi-millionaire to pay far lower income taxes than people who get their income through working at a job?
That's crazy.
The latest news is that Barack Obama has encouraged Mitt Romney to release five additional years of tax returns and has promised in return to ask for no more than that.
Yesterday Romney said he looked at his returns going back ten years and that he paid "at least 13%" in taxes in every year.
Let's take him at his word for now. Anywhere near 13% on tens of millions of dollars of income every year is still absurdly low. Take a look at Barack Obama's federal tax returns over the past 12 years (Warning: I'm no tax lawyer. I just divided Adjusted Gross Income by Total Tax). Here's the rate he paid:
Year Rate
2011 20.5%
2010 26.2%
2009 32.5%
2008 32.2%
2007 33.8%
2006 28.1%
2005 33.0%
2004 19.4%
2003 21.8%
2002 26.6%
2001 31.6%
2000 26.5%
Obama had two years just above or below 20%, and another just below 22%. The other nine years he paid "at least" 26%, with five of those years coming in around 32-33%.
Mitt Romney paid "at least 13%" on an income that almost certainly dwarfs that of the (still well-off) Obamas. That fact highlights the absurdly REGRESSIVE nature of our tax code. How can our system allow a multi-millionaire to pay far lower income taxes than people who get their income through working at a job?
That's crazy.
One quibble Ian...Your title is misleading. We don't know that Romney paid 13%... We don't really know what he paid since he hasn't released his information yet.
ReplyDeleteI certainly am not willing to take Mitt's word on anything.
Let's see the tax returns.