During a press conference on the campaign trail today, Mitt Romney confirmed that his tax rate was “closer to the 15 percent rate,” which is far below people in his bracket 35%, but he has refused to release his tax returns in order to reveal the definitive tax rate that he pays.
One of the reasons Romney is able to drive his tax rate down so low is that he is still earning money from his private equity firm, Bain Capital, whish is subject to a loophole lets wealthy money mangers like Romney pay the capital gains tax rate on profits they make investing other people’s money, turning the justification for having a lower capital gains tax rate completely on its head.
During the same press conference, Romney said that he only makes some income from speaker’s fees, “but not very much,” which is money that would be taxed at normal income tax rates. From Feb. 2010 to Feb. 2011, Romney earned $362,000 in speaker’s fees.
(ThinkProgress.org)
And I paid 17.5% on less that $20,000 in 2010 and most of that was social security.