Question: Was Romney taxed twice on his income as wingers claim?

[Narkos]

My understanding is that his corporation's profits were taxed, which he shared in. But certainly his personal income was not taxed at 35%, correct? Also, isn't it true that capital gains are new income, so how can all that money (post tax income + new money from capital gains) be considered double taxation?

[mdmc]

1. the ways taxed twice

all I ask is he get taxed four score..

[elleng]

2. Not.

He had no 'ordinary income,' presumably 'his' corporation's profits were taxed, but not sure of tax status of 'his' Bain. MOST/all of his, immediate taxes were capital gains=15%.

[baldguy]

3. If it's a RW claim, then it's a lie.

Ipso facto.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. It's all bullshit. "Double taxation" does happen, but...

it's rare that it's something important.

The whiners talk about how if you own stock and the company paid taxes, you paying taxes on your dividends or other profits is double taxation. That's bullshit for a lot of reasons and not worth going into.

Some have tried to claim that if I make a hundred bucks, and that's taxed, then I buy something for 50 bucks the guy I bought it from is taxed again. That's even stinkier bullshit.

Closer to the point is if you own an S corp and it pays taxes, and then you pay taxes on what you take out of it, you're taxed double. It could happen that you are taxed more than if you didn't have the S corp, but you should have talked to your tax guy long before this happened. Same thing is possible for some partnerships or sole proprietorships.

The simple fact is that every time money changes hands somebody is going to pay a tax. The only question is just how much tax.

[coalition_unwilling]

10. Almost everyone gets 'double taxed' on their income and

then sales taxes.

False canard to hide the fact that the rich pay less at the margins than people who fucking work for a living.

[roseBudd]

5. He did not use his money, so no, just like hedge fund managers aren't risking their money

[karynnj]

6. Not really

Their argument is that corporations are taxed and then their dividends are taxed. However, the other way to look at it is that a corporation needs capital and labor - and they "pay" for each. The money that Mitt gets from capital gains is the amount he sells something for minus the cost he bought it at. So, both the capital gains and the dividends are NEW money that he gets by lending his money - and it is that new money he has that he is taxed on.

[Honeycombe8]

7. Someone already asked this question. nt

[Narkos]

11. Thanks bro. That helps

[Honeycombe8]

12. When you post, you get a message to scan recent posts to see if you're being duplicative.

If you had, you would've seen the other post, posted not long before yours.

[Narkos]

13. Wow, that's anazing. Things are duplicated on DU?

[Honeycombe8]

8. Corporations are separate entities. They pay taxes. If you own shares in stock....

you, as a separate person separate from the corporation, have to pay taxes on dividends the corporation pays you.

If you have a 401k, you probably own shares in stock. Dividends are being paid to your 401k. When you withdraw that, you will pay full income taxes on the share value AND the dividends. (If you get dividends outside of a tax deferred account, you pay only 15% taxes on dividends, like Mitt.)

[Honeycombe8]

9. Corporations don't really pay 35%, BTW. All sorts of subsidies & loopholes. GE & Exxon...

GE & Exxon paid NO taxes last year.

[JDPriestly]

14. If Romney doesn't want the corporation to be taxed and then his income of capital gains to be taxed,

then he can organize his company as a partnership or an S corporation.

The partners in a corporation are taxed, but the partnership is not separately taxed. (At least that is my understanding.)

A corporation is a separate legal entity from the person. It is only fair that the corporation and the person who invests in the corporation are each taxed on their earnings because they are viewed in the law as separate "persons." The corporation is a fictional "person" with its own tax ID number.

This is not true of some of the other business organizational forms.

On edit. Woops. It's more complicated. I'm just talking about the traditional, simple partnership. There are hybrids on all these things.