Romney Tax Returns Show $45 Million Income

[DeathToTheOil]

Mitt Romney’s campaign released details of his federal tax returns on Tuesday morning, showing that he will most likely pay $6.2 million in taxes on $45 million in income over the two tax years of 2010 and 2011.

The details of the returns, confirmed by a senior campaign official, provide the most detailed view yet of his wealthy family’s finances. The disclosure comes after a barrage of pressure to release his returns – which Mr. Romney has never done, even when he was elected governor of Massachusetts.

The disclosure — reported early Tuesday by The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and financial wire services — showed a vast array of investments from a recently closed Swiss Bank account to holdings in Bermuda to the Cayman Islands, all underscoring the breadth and depth of his wealth that has become central in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Mr. Romney said last week that his effective rate was “about 15 percent,” a figure lower than that of many affluent Americans. But his returns suggested that he paid an effective tax rate of slightly below that of nearly 14 percent.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/romney-tax-returns-to-give-view-of-family-wealth/?hp#

[Firebrand Gary]

1. And to think the years he is not releasing.

Are most likely so much bigger.

[beac]

32. Ding, ding , ding!

I want to see TWELVE years worth, just like Papa Romney released when he ran.

And don't forget the cash hiding in various international tax havens. So patriotic!

[PuffedMica]

2. Thoroughbred 1%

[Tx4obama]

3. The issue isn't how much he made, the issue is HOW he made it, AND ...

the fact that he had tax havens in The Cayman Islands
and also a Swiss bank account which he closed in 2010 so that it wouldn't be politically embarrassing
and that money also would show up on the 2011 tax return or anywhere else.
Regarding the Swiss bank account see here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12514355

[Cosmocat]

5. This shiite pisses me off to no end

these clowns scream about america and throw out an ENDLESS stream of hating america attacks on Ds in general, and all their sanctimonious BS about patriotism and loving america and ... They will be PERFECTLY FINE, in fact, find a way to spin their flag waving BS to excuse THIS.

Keep it in America, arsehole.

[DonCoquixote]

8. Still hype this number

Because there are plenty of working class people paying more than 15% percent who are going to get REAL SICK of hearing these fols WHINE about taxes. If we want to beat the GOP, we need to cast them as the WHINER party, bnecause America hates whiners.

[LittleGirl]

4. Good Grief

No wonder he wouldn't release them! What a con!

The republican field this year is a massive joke.

Or maybe that's their strategy. They obviously know that they can't beat the Leader of the free world, so they trot out these unbelievably bad candidates which will do nothing but give us the option to vote for Obama again. What a bunch of hypocrites they are.

[kenfrequed]

6. Hmm...

But the problem with that strategy is that if the candidate is bad enough it will hurt them in races down-ticket. Actually that was the advantage of Romney is that he would depress religious conservative voters a bit.

[HughBeaumont]

7. Awesome.

It's going to be the crystal clear evidence needed that the US tax system is BADLY overdue for a reform in terms of the stunningly light weight the wealthy shoulder.

[customerserviceguy]

9. So, did the Mormon church get it's $4.5 million?

Did Mitt pay on the net or on the gross? And what are Floridians going to think when they're actually faced with a number that represents support for a church that is trying to steal people away from other churches?

[Ms. Toad]

10. His charitable donations were

"$7 million . . . over the two years, much of it going to his Mormon church. That represents more than 15 percent of the Romneys' income for those years."

http://news.yahoo.com/romney-reports-tax-bill-6-2-million-2010-050445144.html

[morningfog]

13. Tithing to the mormon church is not a charity, it is required.

Not much different than taxes.

[Ms. Toad]

16. In the eyes of the tax code, it is a charitable donation.

And it answered the question asked, which was whether the Mormon church got its $4.5 million.

[morningfog]

26. I realize that is true for tax code. I just wanted to point out

that the church requires members to have an annual tithing settlement, where they sit down with a church representative and go through the year's earnings to determine what is owed. I just wanted to make clear that referring to it as a charitable donation (outside of tax purposes) is not an accurate frame.

[Ms. Toad]

35. Well...the question was raised in the context of his tax returns

but the tithing is good additional information for anyone who didn't know.

[yardwork]

33. The Mormons used that money to fund anti-gay initiatives all over the country.

Scum.

[Ms. Toad]

34. Another reason not to vote for him...

like I needed any more.

[yardwork]

39. Agreed. I just want to point out the source of a lot of hate campaigns.

In North Carolina we are fighting a constitutional amendment that is among the worst in the country in terms of limiting equal rights not just for gay couples but for any unmarried couple, gay or straight, and their children. What is the source for the language of this nasty amendment? The newly-Republican state legislature won't say, but the language is identical to those in some other recent state ballot initiatives. The National Organization for Marriage refuses to reveal their donor list, even though they have lost court case after court case. The Mormon Church and the Catholic Church are obviously heavy supporters. Their stealth campaign is resulting in the loss of human rights in state after state. All this is happening under the radar.

Mitt's millions are funding this.

[renegade000]

11. for being "unemployed"

he seems to be doing alright...

[Evasporque]

12. And I pay between 28-34%....

This why we need to tax the wealthy.....I make a fraction of what he makes and I am paying in 5k this year....after already paying in over 20k...well over 15% of my income....

And the repukes want to eliminate capital gains tax so people like Romney pay ZERO taxes...

greedy fuckers

[lunatica]

14. Everyone is equal in the US but some people are more equal than others

If you're rich then you're more equal. No so much if you're poor though.

[grantcart]

15. a recently closed Swiss Bank account

that is going to sting

even though there may be nothing unusual about it.

The fact that he just closed it is going to look suspicious.

[Ruby the Liberal]

50. Given that 2009 was "amnesty year" on Swiss accounts

THATS the tax return I want to see.

Wonder if little Mittens was one of the reported thousands to take advantage of that one time offer.

No need to keep the account once you disclose it, especially if laws are more 'favorable' elsewhere...

[JoePhilly]

17. So he gave more to charity than he paid in taxes?

[morningfog]

27. Only if you accept the fallacy that tithing to the mormon church is a charity.

It is an obligation, a duty, for church members to give 10%.

Kids even pay 10% of their allowance or paper route money to the church. Members sit down for annual tithing settlements with church leaders, with their income records, to settle-up on the year.

But, yes, he paid more to his church and charities than he did in taxes. Says a lot about the tax code inequities in this country.

[JoePhilly]

29. Exactly.

[The Wizard]

18. This should be a useful tool

to shine the light of day on our unfair tax laws written by lobbyists. When the top 1% makes 90% of the money and pays 70% of the taxes they are reaping benefits that outstrip their contributions to the general welfare. Promoting the general welfare is in the first sentence of the Constitution, as is the statement about forming a more perfect Union.
The usurpers of out treasure are inherently anti union and pro treasury looting and as such are anti American. We are the 99%.

[RDANGELO]

19. Mitt Romney

Poster boy for the 1%.

[Botany]

20. But he does his laundry himself

Mitt was hiding his money in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and in Swiss Bank accounts but he has
the temerity to want to be POTUS? And how did he make his money? By doing leveraged buy outs
of businesses which he mined for their capital and left thousands of people w/out jobs and communities
devastated after those firms closed and if his company kept any of the jobs they shipped 'em overseas except
for low paying ones such as Staples and Sport's Authority.

Mitt is the poster child of the blight caused by vulture capitalism which has savaged our nation but now
we our supposed to forgive him and make him POTUS because he poses that he does his own laundry
just like the "common folk."

[JJW]

47. Is he laundering dirty money?

[Hubert Flottz]

57. You know that picture is bullshit...

I never heard of anyone washing their dirty disposable Dave Vitter model Huggies.

Mitt must really be an extra stingy CONservative.

Is that his wife or his mistress?

[cbdo2007]

21. haha perfect - and on the day of the SOTU

Congrats Obama, it's your election to lose.

[Ruby the Liberal]

51. And reportedly, said SOTU is going to focus on income disparity

as an economic theme.

[SmittynMo]

22. This is total BS

I feel it is my duty to pay taxes each and every year. Now here's the kicker. I am an independent contractor, (consulting, and project management). Last year I made 75K, and have been unemployed for the past 4 months. My last gig ended in 2011. I have to pay double FICA because there is no employer to pay that portion of taxes. Current FICA for employee is 7.5% Another 7.5 for the employer, for which I have to cover. Beteeen myself and my wife, we fall in the 25% tax bracket (federal). Add another 6% state. Then add 15% for FICA. Thats 46% for being a self employed contractor. And even with paying 46% taxes, I am still ineligable for a UI check. Who can afford almost 50% of their paycheck going to taxes? I had to as there weren't any jobs I could find at the time. I am still actively pursuing a full time job somewhere, anywhere. The job market still sucks out there. I don' care what the numbers indicate. And now to see Romney paying 15%? There is really something wrong with this picture. Again, the 1% make all the money, get all the breaks, while the middle class gets screwed.

Signed,,,,,,

Bent over

[SOS]

31. A tax reform proposal

Call it the Romney Tax Equity Act.

Form 1040/2012

Line 1:

Enter taxable income.

Line 2:

Multiply Line 1 by 13.8%.

Your payroll and federal income taxes are now complete.
Thank you for spending five minutes filling out your return.
Enjoy your tax cut!

[handmade34]

54. "Who can afford almost 50% of their paycheck going to taxes?"

...someone who makes more than a $1.000.000.00 (specifically someone who make 45mil) !!!!

[Thor_MN]

23. But he himself said that he was unemployed....

and pulled in $39 million after taxes. He didn't do jack to work for it. Why does the US tax code hate working Americans so much that it lets NONworkibg Americains to pay so little in taxes?

[Amonester]

46. Answer: he is a 'new' Royal now.

Quite simple to figure it out, actually.

Those who ignore the lessons of History, and all that jazz...

[Mira]

24. Remember the 50 bucks he gave to that woman?

Princely.
I'm too proud of him to speak.

[paparush]

25. Poster Child of the .01% nt

[intheozone]

28. Swiss account? Recently closed? Someone needs to ask Romney

if he participated in the IRS's Voluntary Offshore Disclosure Programs in 2011 or 2009 (or maybe the first one was in 2010). If he did, he's dead meat as a candidate!

[cbdo2007]

38. Apparently it was with UBS....who happened to get in big trouble for tax evasion

in 2009:

52,000 have secret UBS Accounts - Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/19/ubs-fraud-offshore-personal_finance-taxes_ubs.html

Here is acknowledgement that his account was with UBS:
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-presidential-primary/206061-romney-paid-62m-in-taxes-on-425m-in-income

"Malt also disputed media reports that Romney had closed down his account with Swiss Bank UBS because of political concerns. But the disclosure - coupled with the investments in mutual funds based in areas traditionally known as tax havens - creates a perception that could be easily seized upon by his political opponents. "

[snooper2]

30. Yo Idiot writer of this "blog"

It takes less words to write

"13.9 percent"

than-

"slightly below that of nearly 14 percent"

[itsrobert]

36. Why is the media spewing 15 percent all over the place

I just heard on CNN, 15 percent over and over again. Why are they being coy? It's below 14 percent. That's a lot of money on $45 million.

[closeupready]

37. Yep. And the reason is because they are ALL overpaid news readers, hired to parrot Ayn Randian type

propaganda. It also helps that when you are as overpaid as they are, those beneficial tax policies help YOU take home huge amounts of income.

[Tom Ripley]

45. You are absolutely correct; they are lackies who are proud to haul big rocks for pharaoh

[VWolf]

40. Ya know what's scary?

The difference between 15% & 13.9% on $45 million is $495,000.

That's a lot more than most people gross in a year. It's just obscene.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

49. Even scarier ...

... that $495k is more than many FAMILIES gross in TEN YEARS.

Average family income for 2010 fell to $49,445, according to USAToday (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-09-13/census-household-income/50383882/1).

Seriously, isn't it past time for torches and pitchforks for the ultra-greedy?

[Sgent]

41. The swiss bank account doesn't really bother me from a tax perspective

There are legitimate reasons for having a swiss bank account -- mostly they are the safest banks in Europe, and if your doing investing on the other side of the pond they have much deeper access and expertise to financial products over there.

Since he declared it on his taxes, he was subject to audit and and the tax assessments according to law.

That being said, from a policy standpoint this is terrible. Without looking at the return its impossible to say, but by holding the money in a foreign account, he *may* escape taxation until the money is repatriated. This is a major problem.

[starroute]

42. But UBS isn't just any Swiss bank

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBS#U.S._tax_evasion_controversy

In July 2008, a United States Senate panel accused Swiss banks, including UBS and LGT Group, of helping wealthy Americans evade taxes through offshore accounts.[50] U.S. clients held about 19,000 accounts at UBS, with an estimated $18 billion to $20 billion in assets, in Switzerland, according to the findings. In response to the report and the FBI investigation, UBS announced that it would cease providing cross-border private banking services to US-domiciled clients through its non-US regulated units as of July 2008. . . .

UBS agreed on February 18, 2009 to pay a fine of $780 million to the U.S. government and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement on charges of conspiring to defraud the United States by impeding the Internal Revenue Service. Of the $780 million that UBS will pay, $380 million represents disgorgement of profits from its cross-border business; the balance represents United States taxes that UBS failed to withhold on the accounts. As part of the deal, UBS also settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges of having acted as an unregistered broker-dealer and investment adviser for Americans.

The day after settling its criminal case on February 19, 2009, the U.S. government filed a civil suit against UBS to reveal the names of all 52,000 American customers, alleging that the bank and these customers conspired to defraud the IRS and federal government of legitimately owed tax revenue. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) had given the United States government the identities of, and account information for, certain United States customers of UBS’s cross-border business as part of its criminal investigation in 2009. On August 12, 2009, UBS announced a settlement deal that ended its litigation with the IRS. However, this settlement set up a showdown between the U.S. and Swiss governments over the secrecy of Swiss bank accounts. It was not until June 2010 that Swiss lawmakers approved a deal to reveal client data and account details of U.S. clients who were suspected of tax evasion.

[Sgent]

43. I agree that putting the money in UBS looks bad

and you could reasonably construe that Romney was supporting a corporation engaging in an illegal enterprise.

However, regardless of the Swiss banking laws / tax evasion committed by others, it has never been a crime or against the tax law to have foreign accounts, as long as they were properly declared (which Romney seemed to have done).

Although traditionally Swiss accounts were secret (the banks didn't report transactions to the IRS), by law the taxpayer must report transactions -- and it *seems* for at least the years released in his tax returns that he did. The agreement and prosecution (since UBS had a US branch) were more about information sharing.

[starroute]

53. So the issue may be more his concern for appearances than anything else

It seems of a piece with him saying, "Look, you can’t have any illegals working on our property. I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake."

Romney doesn't much care what he does -- he only cares how it looks. And whether or not there was anything illegal about his account with UBS, the fact that he canceled it only after the US compelled the bank to hand over the names of depositors seems very much part of that pattern.

[closeupready]

48. When you consider it's UBS in conjunction with the offshore Cayman Island accounts, it stinks

Something is very, VERY rotten there.

[Gormy Cuss]

44. What a stupid, sensationalist headline.

Those are his earnings over two years and the headline should reflect that. It's stupid because his income in EITHER year would be just as effective in portraying unemployed, pink-slip-fearing, man on the street Romney as a rich elitist who pays a pitifully low amount in Federal income tax.

[alp227]

52. full article for press: Romney’s Tax Returns Show $21.6 Million Income in ’10

Mitt Romney’s campaign released hundreds of pages of tax documents on Tuesday morning, providing an inside glimpse into his sprawling investments, both in the United States and abroad, in an effort to dampen the attacks on his wealth that have become a central focus of the Republican presidential nominating battle.

Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann, had an effective federal income tax rate in 2010 of 13.9 percent, paying about $3 million in taxes on an adjusted gross income of $21.6 million, the vast majority of it flowing from a myriad of stock holdings, mutual funds and other investments, including profits and investment income from Bain Capital, the private equity firm Mr. Romney retired from in 1999.

That rate will rise to 15.4 percent for 2011, when the couple expects to report an adjusted gross income of about $20.9 million.

Both rates are much lower than the rates paid by either President Obama or Newt Gingrich, Mr. Romney’s Republican rival, who released his tax returns last week. Mr. Romney’s own tax proposals would cut his federal income taxes by about 40 percent — but Mr. Gingrich’s proposal, which would abolish capital gains taxes, would almost entirely eliminate them.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/us/politics/romneys-tax-returns-show-21-6-million-income-in-10.html?pagewanted=all

[FedUp_Queer]

55. No wonder $374,000 is a "little extra money."

[Hubert Flottz]

56. And that's just what he reported.

I wonder how much he really took in?

[freshstart]

58. yeah...

he's a "job creator." He and the rest of the 1% create jobs at Swiss banks and holding companies in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. While paying the same percentage as those paying income tax on earnings of $12,150 – $46,250 (head of household.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States