Mitt Romney released his tax returns after the entire nation clamored for them.  Well, actually, Newt  tried to attack him with the fact that he hadn’t released them, and Obama of course wanted him to release them because it showed that he’s one of the 1% that the 99% are bothered about.

First, before I get into his tax returns, I want to dispel the myth that Romney was given everything he has by his family.   Mitt Romney has said throughout the campaign that he didn’t inherent money from his parents, and politifact went and did the research for this article to see if he was telling the truth.   If you don’t want to read the article, here’s the conclusion for you:

Politifact rated it half true because his parents helped him get into college.  For all you people out there who say you are doing it by yourself with no assistance, this is the equilivant of politifact rating your claims as half true because you received a tax break on your returns because you deducted school – or if you received grants from some place.  Romney, who graduated with honors from college and worked very hard to make a name and wealth for himself, surpassed his parents wealth and probably their dreams for him.  Actually, Romney’s story is that of the so-called “American Dream” – parents who worked hard to make a good life for their child, and that child surpassing those dreams and becoming not only wealthy but well known in the community.  You realize, those of you who are hating on him for this, are hating him for essentially following the blue print set out for years and years by our ancestors?  You’re basically player hating, but I digress…

Mitt Romney’s tax returns show the following information:

Mitt and Ann earned $21.7 million in 2010 and paid a 13.9 percent tax rate.
The total amount the Romneys paid in taxes in 2010 was about $3 million.
In total, the Romneys in 2010 gave nearly $3 million to charity, with half of that going to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon church.

Many people are up in arms because this tax rate is apparently lower than someone who grosses $50,000 a year… but let’s look at that claim:

Over here at moneychimp.com, they have a calculator that tells you what your tax rate.  If I input $50,000 a year, married, filing jointly like Mitt and Ann are, my tax bracket is in the 15% area, while as a percentage of my taxable income is 13.3%.  That is before any deductions such as dependents (children), charitable donations (such as to my church) and houses or property which I may own.  If I had all these things, it is possible that I could get down in the single digits for my tax rate, while only making $50,000 a year.

In that scenario, would you consider yourself taking advantage of “tax loopholes” or just saving your family a little bit of money?  I know for 3 years I used capital losses that I had on the stock market to offset my taxable income, as well as deducting my college education and some charitable donations I made to Hospice.  This allowed me to receive a serious amount of money back from the federal government every year on my taxes – was I using tax loopholes to get out of doing my civic duty and pay my taxes?  How about the fact that I put money into my 401K or my health savings plan which is pre-tax?

The fact is, Romney paided 3 million in taxes last year.  It work take somebody who was making $50,000 a year over 100 years to make the same contribution.  This is also not including taxes he can’t escape like sales tax… can you imagine what he puts forth a year in that?

I’m not saying that the tax laws shouldn’t be changed to make the ultra-rich pay a little bit more, they probably should.  I’m just saying, let’s not call them names while they’re doing it.

Stephanie is a 27 year old living outside of Washington, DC.

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