Tag: taxes
Romney Suspicious of Trump’s Finances
We have good reason to believe that there’s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes. Either he’s not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasn’t been paying taxes we would expect him to pay or perhaps he hasn’t been giving money to vets or to the disabled like he’s been telling us he’s been doing.
— Mitt Romney, hitting Donald Trump over not releasing tax information, CNN reports.
Undocumented Immigrants Pay Nearly $12 Billion in Taxes
$11.8 billion
Amount in U.S. taxes undocumented immigrants pay. Washington Post: “Here’s a talking point for Democrats: President Obama’s executive actions on immigration will generate an extra $845 million in taxes annually from immigrants living here illegally. But that’s just a drop in the bucket compared with the $11.8 billion they already pay.”
How to Talk About Taxes Without Saying the ‘T’ Word
Well here’s the reality: If you go into a business, and I keep coming back to my background, it’s how I know how to relate is to refer back to it — I was never able to turn around a company just by cutting spending. You had to figure out a way to get revenue growing. And what I just said, there are five people in the U.S. Senate who understand what I just said. You know revenue is not something they think about.
— Georgia U.S. Senate candidate David Perdue (R), in an interview with the Macon Telegraph.
Half of Americans Think Their Federal Income Tax is too High
52%
Of Americans say the amount they have to pay in federal income tax is “too high,” while 42% say it is “about right,” according to Gallup. The percentage who say their taxes are too high has hovered around 50% since 2003, although the current 52% is up from 46% two years ago.
Number of U.S. Citizens Renouncing Citizenship to Escape Taxes Hits a Record
1,130
The number of U.S. taxpayers who renounced citizenship or permanent-resident status in the second quarter to avoid new tax laws, the Wall Street Journal reports. That is far above the previous high of 679, set in the first quarter, and more than were reported in all of 2012.
Cruz Promotes Flat Tax
We ought to abolish the IRS and instead move to a simple flat tax, where the average American can fill out our taxes on a postcard.
— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), in an interview with Fox News, offering his solution to the controversy of the IRS targeting conservatives groups.
Poll: Raising Tax Rates on High Incomes Backed by Solid Majorities
Sixty percent of all Americans back higher taxes on higher incomes in the new Post-ABC data. Earlier this month, an identical 60 percent of voters in the presidential election said income taxes should be raised on income over $250,000, according to the national exit poll.
In the new poll, 73 percent of Democrats support such tax hikes, including a majority, 57 percent, who do so “strongly.” Among political independents, 63 percent back an increase, while 59 percent of Republicans oppose such a move.
Other proposed solutions to shrinking the debt are far less popular with the public. Only 44 percent support new limitations on the deductions people can claim on their federal income taxes — a proposal that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney put forward during his unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign.
See If You Can Make the Romney-Ryan Tax Plan Work
The Washington Post’s Wonkblog has a great interactive “revenue meter” that enables you to try and get the Republican tax plan to add up. You can get there, but it ain’s easy and it ain’t according to the R&R tax approach. Check it out and tell us your results in comments.
Mitt Doesn’t Know the Difference Between a Tax and a Deduction
Mitt Romney seems unclear on the concept of personal income tax.
“I did go back and look at my taxes and over the past ten years I never paid less than 13%. I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that. I paid taxes every single year,” Romney said…”Harry Reid’s charge is totally false. I am sure waiting for Harry to put up who it was that told him what he says they told him – I don’t believe it for a minute by the way – but every year I paid at least 13% and if you add in addition the amount that goes to charity, why, the number gets well above 20%.”
First of all, I checked my 2011 return and my actual tax rate was 17.7%. That’s how much the IRS expected me to pony up over the course of the year, with my various deductions, except I didn’t take enough out of my earnings as I went along and had to stroke a check to send in with my return for the remainder.
And I was happy to do it, if only to save those job creators like Mitt Romney from paying even more on their personal incomes, since it’s their personal incomes and not their businesses that they use to create jobs. At least, that’s what I’m told by every Republican ever.
But what really catches my ear in what Willard said today is the part about how, when you add in what he gave to the Mormon Church, why, the number gets well above 20 percent.