General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I teach school for 40 grand a year before taxes. [View all]Ms. Toad
(34,072 posts)you need to use the same measure - what is on the federal tax return, which does not include FICA/Medicare for the OP either.
I think it would be very enlightening to see not only federal, but state, city, property, FICA, Medicare, and so on - so we do get the total tax picture.
As I indicated, different income plays out differently.
In Romney's case, he benefits in the FICA/Medicare realm from his income being unearned. That benefit appears to be more than offset by the additional taxes he will have to pay at the state level - FICA stops being collected at a little over $100,000; the ~6.5% add on to state taxes for unearned income does not appear to be capped. (I have not spent a great deal of time looking at Mass. taxes - this is based on the state website which says that some capital gains are taxed at 12%, as opposed to the ~5.4% tax rate for earned income, and a "should you take a job in Mass?" fact sheet which suggested that it is most capital gains that are taxed at 12%.)
So - it is not really fair to include the implications of unearned income on FICA/Medicare for purposes of thinking about taxes, if you don't also include the rest of the implications of unearned income (i.e. at the state or local level).