Romney: I paid at least 13% in taxes on the Peoria.com Forums - Page 2

yup

"Everyone should pay the same percentage of their income."

I would absolutely sign up for that in a heartbeat.

@JnJ:

Me too. No exceptions or exemptions.

What would that % be, closer to what Romney pays, or closer to what we pay.. I'm guessing closer to ours, than his.. can't rule the world with everyone just paying 13%!

* This message has been revised.

I heard an interesting theory today that may or may not have some merit.

Dem. Senator Harry Reid D-NV is a Mormon. He may have his ear to the ground and know that there is a good chance that Romney gave a boat load of money to the Mormon church and took a deduction for it. It is quite legal to do so. However, maybe, perhaps, Romney doesnt want to get that information out as he might think the Mormon issue is too controversial.

Another theory is that maybe, perhaps Romney has more money in offshore accounts than, so far, we have been led to believe. Again, off shore accounts are totally legal as long as they are reported on your tax forms. Interest on accounts in this country has been pretty pathetic the last few years. It could be that his offshore accounts got a higher interest rate there than being on deposit in the USA. If so, on large sums of money on deposit in offshore accounts would rack up some money.The average person doesnt have such easy access to open offshore accounts.

I have been told that the form you have to sign for the IRS when you state that you have offshore acccounts is so complex and confusing that only the best tax lawyers could possibly understand it. Many very experienced CPAs wont even touch a client that has offshore accounts because of the complexity of the document. Instead the CPAs send the clients to a high profile tax attorney who does understand it. Again, it is something that Romney would have access to.

All in all it is one of many things that seemingly puts Romney in a situation where he is totally naive about the average person. He is clueless as they come.

@AV8R:

That will never happen as the real estate industry and charitable organizations will see to it that those exemptions stay.

@JnJ:

Is this suppoosed to mean that you think I'm lying about being an independent? Seriously?? Ask some liberals here if I have disagreed with their POVs.... let's talk about my views of the free market - libs, am I a left-leaner? or a right-leaner?? (recall, I work in the financial industry....)

Get real, JnJ...

@AV8R:

Add in no more sales tax. Tired of getting taxed twice on my money....

Couple things that are telling about Mitt's refusal:

His wife's own words: "The more we release, the more we get attacked, the more we get questions, the more we get pushed" contradicts entirely her same claim of his "just golden" reputation. Isn't "if you haven't done anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about" a truism of the right?

Perhaps it has something to do with his income from Bain after he supposedly had divested himself both financially and directionally. And perhaps even further, Bain's investments (and profit from) in certain companies that may be antithetical to the Republican base, such as a little entity called Stericycle, in the business of medical waste disposal particularly from Planned Parenthood.

Or perhaps they would just show a quasi-ethical legal interpretation of laws, using complex schemes to avoid paying taxes and donating immense sums of money to the Mormon church, none of which resonate with independent voters or Joe the Plumber.

@shifty:

Thank you so much for mentioning Stericycle. That likely possibility has been out there for awhile and somehow the subject fades off the radar screen. That could be a major story that hasnt played out yet.

For some reason I dont think Romney used quasi legal interpretations to get deductions for the simple reason he probably didnt have to. However, I do believe he used some very legal but obscure deductions that only a very, very high profile tax attorney could find.,

In any event it is all something that does not resonante with the average voter.

Again, thank you so much for mentioning Stericycle.

I realize that this is completely irrelevant and off the subject, but did you guys know that unemployment during the month of July rose in 44 states? I would start a thread about it but surely someone else already has I must just be overlooking it.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/usatoday/article

Jnj...no one can argue that the economy is in great shape...but that doesn't mean that Romney is the person to turn things around. Are his taxes relevent to how he would govern? Probably not. Would they shed light on the inequality that exists in tax policy between rich and poor? Probably. My problem is the smugness that the Romneys exude when talking saying things like "they have gotten everything we are going to give". It reeks of a "let them eat cake" mentality. It also makes me think that he is somewhat dense in that he has been running forthis office for at least 5 years and still has not come up with a good way to communicate about his wealth.

Oh..he also said "trust me" about his taxes when he was running for gov in Ma and it turned out he was lying. He said that he had claimed MA as his residence for taxes for the mandatory years before running when he, in fact, had not.

One more thing...he may give a fortune to charities, and good for him, but he doesn't get to tack that on tho his 13% he pays in taxes when he talks about it.

@JnJ:

Dont forget that MA was 47th in the nation for job creation when Romney was Gov. of MA.

@AverageJoe:

Classic example of republicans not tolerating any thoughtful conversation among the people in their party. Anyone who disagrees gets their republican-ness challenged. Its the reason why Ryan apparently went along with the spending that his party passed and is now pretending that they didn't. The awake republicans need to band together and call the zombies out.

My remarks have nothing to do with tolerance or lack thereof. It's just simply impossible to call yourself a fiscal conservative and say you support the Obama economic policies all in the same sentence. That would be like saying because I am pro-life, I support the Obama platform regarding abortion.