The Cheat Sheet

theatlantic:

The Most Misleading Part of ‘The 47%’: Total U.S. Taxes Are Barely Progressive

Mitt Romney is worried that half of make the wealth and half of us take the wealth. So is his running mate Paul Ryan. If this sounds like something out of a dystopian novel, that’s because it is. The world we live in is far different from the world Ayn Rand imagined. Just take a look at total taxes.

The chart above, from the Citizens for Tax Justice, looks at how much households earn and how much they pay in all taxes. In other words, it compares what percent of overall income they make and what percent of overall taxes the government takes from them. It’s not exactly a picture of moochers waging war on heroic entrepreneurs.

Read more. [Image: Citizens for Tax Justice]

sunfoundation:

Putting Romney’s tax returns in presidential context

The controversy over what’s hiding in Mitt Romney’s unreleased tax returns continues.  But even without the missing filings, putting his 2010 and 2011 tax numbers in context is strikingly informative. It dramatically shows what an outlier Romney is on a few basic tax and income dimensions.

One of these (OK, two) is not like the others…

theatlantic:

Here Is President Obama’s Tax Return

The president and vice-president released their 2011 tax returns this morning. The Obama’s reported total income of $844,000 and adjusted gross income of $789,674, placing the president’s family well inside the top 1% — even the top 0.5% — of households, which is no surprise considering the president’s salary alone puts somebody near the top percentile. About half of Obama’s income came from the president’s salary. The other half came from book sales.

The Obama’s paid $162,074 in total taxes, for an effective tax rate of about 20%, which is typical for an upper-middle class family but a tad lower than the average tax rate for the richest tenth of earners, since half of their money came from non-earned income and they reported a $3,000 investment loss. The couple donated a nearly identical amount, $172,130, or 22% of their adjusted gross income, to charities.

See the rest of Obama’s tax return.

shortformblog:

Obama vs. Romney on tax rates: As you can see, rates are largely the same—except for the nation’s richest and poorest. The poor would pay almost twice as much in taxes under Romney’s plan; meanwhile, the very richest in the country would be forced to cough up about 10% more of their income under Obama. The net effect? In short, Romney’s plan would reduce federal revenues to about 17% of GDP—down .9% from where they are now. Obama’s budget would raise revenues 19.2%, with most of that money coming from those making over $250,000 a year (Graphic and data courtesy of The Washington Post / Tax Policy Center).

Thanks to commenter “kognyc” for pointing us to the above chart, which provides a perfect visual complement to Gary Rivlin’s story about how the poor people’s safety net is largely a myth. Here’s what Mitt’s Romney’s tax plan would really do: further increase income inequality in America by providing massive tax cuts to those at the top of the income scale and add to the tax burden of the poor and working poor. Just follow the logic: jobless benefits and health insurance are limited, housing assistance has been reduced, and ‘welfare’ has been devastated by budget cuts.

thedailyfeed:

Mitt Romney earned $21.6 million in 2010 — and paid just 14% in taxes, far less than Newt Gingrich’s 31.7% or Obama’s 26.3%.

In fact, the Romneys paid a higher tax rate to foreign countries, handing over 18 percent on the almost $375,000 that they garnered abroad. The former Massachusetts governor also shelled out almost $3 million to charity, roughly 16 percent of his post-tax haul.

Rick Santorum’s one actually good idea: eliminating the corporate income tax on manufacturing companies. 

(Chris Carlson / AP Photo)

It doesn’t make any sense to me to pursue what the president is talking about in the economy we’ve got. Why would you do something that makes it less attractive to give to charities when so many people are in need?

Eric Cantor speaking about President Obama’s proposal to cap itemized deductions (including charitable donations) at the 35 percent tax bracket.