1/30/2012

Double standards for John Kerry and Mitt Romney's tax records?


John Kerry is wealthier than Mitt Romney, but he has paid a smaller percentage of his income in taxes. Yet, where was the media outrage over Kerry's tax returns?

Labels:

posted by John Lott at 9:29 PM

4 Comments:

Blogger Raven Lunatic said...

To be fair, the economy hadn't imploded yet in 2004, so people were much more forgiving of the wealthy.

1/31/2012 12:09 AM  
Blogger Dipo Dwijaya said...

Poor the little man. I know nothing about tax, but I think it's not fair if the wealthier pays small amount than poor.

1/31/2012 3:30 AM  
Blogger John Lott said...

Dwijayasblog:
The wealthier do pay a lot more in taxes. The issue here is whether they pay more as a percentage of their income. But even these attacks are incorrect as there are two reasons for Romney's relatively low tax rate: 1) the vast majority of his income was from capital gains and 2) he gave several million dollars to charity (which allow him a deduction, but which means that isn't money that he is keeping). On the capital gains, you must realize that when you invest in a company the company that you own is already paying a 40 percent marginal income tax rate. The 15 percent capital gains tax is on top of that. As a shareholder in the company you bear the direct cost of that corporate income tax before you get any money out of your investment.

1/31/2012 6:14 AM  
Blogger John Lott said...

Raven Lunatic:
Thanks. The difference is that Obama is demonizing wealthier people now, but I am still willing to bet that Romney's wealth would have been a campaign issue in any year that he ran for president. I also think that Democrats would have also attacked him for the percent of his income that he paid in taxes. The media would have covered this. Kerry had a much higher income and paid a lower income tax rate.

1/31/2012 6:16 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home