"The Treasury Department is grossly overstepping its authority. This is a nation of laws. Only Congress has the authority to change the law. The Obama administration is intent on forcing same-sex 'marriage' on an unwilling public. Congress alone has the responsibility of determining federal tax law."Basically Brian is pissed that the IRS will recongize Gay married couples.
Mitt Romney paid $1.95 million in taxes on his 2011 investment income of $13.7 million, his campaign revealed on Friday, making good on Mr. Romney’s promise earlier this year to eventually release his full returns for that year.
Mr. Romney, who made millions by running Bain Capital, a private equity firm, paid an effective federal tax rate of 14.1 percent in taxes, primarily because most of his income was in the form of capital gains that are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income. Mr. Romney has said that he has paid at least 13 percent in federal income taxes in each of the last 10 years.
In order for that claim to be true in 2011, Mr. Romney had to voluntarily take a smaller deduction than he was entitled to for his charitable deductions, his advisers said Friday.
Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann, donated about $4 million to charity in 2011, but claimed only $2.25 million as a deduction. The campaign said that Mr. Romney’s tax liability would have been far lower in 2011 had the Romneys claimed the full deduction for their charitable contributions.
“The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the governor’s statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13 percent in income taxes in each of the last 10 years,” said R. Bradford Malt, Mr. Romney’s trustee.
It is possible, however, that Mr. Romney could still deduct the unclaimed amount of his charitable donations in future tax years, experts said.
Ryan’s tax returns, released through Mitt Romney’s campaign, show that he paid $64,764 in taxes on $323,416 of adjusted gross income in 2011. He and his wife paid $34,233 in taxes on $215,417 of adjusted gross income in 2010.Interesting, to say the least.
Just over half of the couple’s income came through Ryan’s congressional salary, according to the returns, with the other amounts coming from a variety of investments, including rental real estate, partnerships, and trusts.
The Ryans donated $12,991 to charity in 2011, and $2,600 to charity in 2010. Those contributions went to such groups as the Boy Scouts of America, Junior Achievement, and Women and Children’s Horizons, according to the campaign.
Although Ryan’s income is larger than what the average person makes, his tax returns are fairly straightforward and would be familiar to most Americans, unlike Romney’s returns, which illustrate the complexities of the US tax system.
