Mitt Romney's Tax Rate

Mitt Romney's statements, "What's the effective rate I've been paying? It's probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything," Romney said during a press conference after an early morning rally. "Because my last 10 years, I've…my income comes overwhelmingly from some investments made in the past, whether ordinary income or earned annually. I got a little bit of income from my book, but I gave that all away. And then I get speakers fees from time to time, but not very much." In a personal financial disclosure report released in August, showed Romney was paid more than $370,000 for speaking appearances in the 2011-2011 filing period. Romney admitted to exactly what billionaire Warren Buffet has railed against, the fact that many multi-millionaires actually pay far less in taxes than the people who work for them. Romney opposes elimination of capital gains tax for the rich. "I also think that the speaker's plan to eliminate the capital gains tax for high income individuals - capital gains, interest and dividends - would not only be a very expensive provision in terms of having to fill an even larger budget hole but that would provide for people of very high income a possibility of no tax at all," said Romney. "You'd have individuals - the Warren Buffet argument - Warren Buffet, Bill Gates would probably pay no taxes at all. Today they probably pay 15 percent." "Very high-income people of this country pay roughly 15 percent of taxes if their resources are coming from investments, and under their plan it would go to zero," said Romney. "I just don't think that's the right course. I think that with our precious dollars we should focus on providing relief - tax relief - really in two areas: one is for middle-income Americans that have been hurt the most and secondly is to bring our corporate tax rates to a level where we could draw people from other countries to bring their funds into this country." His statements on job creations, "Let's get the math, alright?" said Romney, who appeared irritated as he was followed to his campaign bus by a crush of reporters. "Four companies created 120,000 jobs. It's very simple," said Romney. "Four companies created 120,000. Staples, Bright Horizons, Steel Dynamics, and… which one am I missing? Sports Authority. If you look up their 10Ks today, you'll find that they have 120,000 jobs. Those were all businesses I helped get started." "So those four created about 120,000 jobs," Romney continued. "And then all of those businesses that had been well-documented by various people over the years, when I ran in '94, when I ran last time, when I ran for governor, those that have lost jobs, they end up being a little less than 10,000, those that were losers. So if you took the ones that were losers, and compare with the ones that were, those four, at least, why you end up with something over 100,000." President Obama paid at a rate of 26% in 2010.