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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Win Smith who wrote (202410)	9/21/2012 3:34:15 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542835

In order for that claim to be true in 2011, Mr. Romney had to voluntarily take a smaller deduction than he was entitled to for his charitable deductions, his advisers said Friday. Oh for heavens sake, what an ass. He is violating his own criteria for voting for him--he is (if we are to believe him) paying far more than one cent more than he should by law pay. Thus rendering him unfit to be president.... I see MSNBC has already made this point-- Mitt Romney pays extra taxes, disqualifies himself from becoming president By Steve Frank - Fri Sep 21, 2012 1:52 PM EDT BREAKING: Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney releases his 2011 tax returns today at 3 p.m. EDT. The campaign published the following summary: The Romneys paid $1,935,708 in taxes on $13,696,951 in mostly investment income. The Romneys' effective tax rate for 2011 was 14.1%. The Romneys donated $4,020,772 to charity in 2011, amounting to nearly 30% of their income. The Romneys claimed a deduction for $2.25 million of those charitable contributions. The Romneys' generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year. But they decided to limit their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to Romney's August statement, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13 percent in income taxes in each of the last 10 years. Ironically, by taxes he didn't owe, Romney technically disqualified himself from the presidency. In July 2012, he told ABC News: "I don't pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become president. I'd think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires." Here's the video (watch for the "I don't think I'd be qualified" comments at 2:47): [EDIT: video at link below] Romney earns the majority of his income from investment profits, dividends and interest, which is taxed at a lower rate than income. The Romney campaign also plans to release a letter from accountants saying he owed an average effective federal tax rate of 20.2 percent over the 20-year period ending in 2009. Romney's campaign said the lowest annual federal personal tax rate he owed over the 20 years was 13.66 percent, significantly less than many middle class families pay Romney's refusal to release returns prior to 2010, leaving Democrats to claim he paid little or no taxes and paint him as an out-of-touch millionaire. ed.msnbc.com