Oh. My. God:
http://politics.suntimes.com/...
IRS data shows that while Bruce Rauner is one of the 11,000 wealthiest tax filers in the United States, most of the money he made in recent years was taxed at less than half the top rate for the wealthy, a Chicago Tribune analysis shows.
For the most part, he was taxed at a 15 percent rate, thanks to a strategy that offers large tax savings on Rauner's share of investment fees paid to GTCR, his investment firm. While such a strategy is allowed, it has come under IRS scrutiny.
The Tribune's analysis shows that Rauner's "financial profile is one driven by tax-reducing strategies often out of reach for those of more modest means." - Chicago Sun-Times, 7/2/14
Here are some more details:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...
An analysis of the limited records Rauner has released, conducted by the Tribune in consultation with tax experts, gives the fullest picture yet of the steps he took to trim his tax bill. In ways both big and small, the Republican businessman's financial profile is one driven by tax-reducing strategies often out of reach for those of more modest means:
•Rauner's campaign is built around his resounding success at the helm of GTCR, through which he earned millions of dollars a year. But a major portion of that money was reported to the IRS as capital gains taxed at a preferential 15 percent, including money from so-called management fee waivers used by many private equity firms to reduce tax bills for key partners.
•For three years, Rauner reported little regular business income, the tax category that includes partnership earnings and is subject to a top tax rate of 35 percent. Instead he claimed losses of $3.1 million in 2011 and $12.7 million the year before.
•Complicated tax rules related to those business income losses freed Rauner from paying any Social Security or Medicare taxes in 2010 and 2011, despite his reporting healthy earnings in other income categories and listing a combined adjusted gross income for those years of about $55 million.
•In 2012, Rauner claimed an additional $53 million in adjusted gross income, bringing his total for three years to $108 million and easily placing him in the top federal tax bracket of 35 percent then in effect. Tax breaks, however, reduced his effective tax rate for those years to slightly more than 19 percent, about the same rate paid by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, whom Rauner is trying to unseat.
Rauner's combined federal tax bill was $20.7 million from 2010 through 2012. Quinn's, according to his tax returns for those years, totaled about $106,600 on income of about $568,000, giving the governor an effective tax rate of 18.8 percent. - Chicago Tribune, 7/2/14
Now here's Rauner's response:
http://www.nbcchicago.com/...
The fee waiver method is permitted under tax laws -- so Rauner and company did nothing illegal -- but is now being examined by the IRS, which began probing its widespread use within the private equity sector after ex-GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney was similarly found to have benefitted from such loopholes.
Rauner has sought an extension on the release of his 2013 return.
"My income is based upon a whole lot of things. It's capital gains through carried interest. It's through management fees I get across all the funds," Rauner told the Trib, saying he hadn't earned a typical salary in three decades.
"I've been a very large owner in every GTCR fund over 32 years," he continued. "I also have other personal investments, some of which generate ordinary income of various types, some of which generate capital gains, some of which generate interest income. Breaking apart all that detail is hard to do."
It may be no coincidence that Rauner decided to disclose the documents during a holiday week when a lot of people aren't paying as much attention to the news. These tax-reducing revelations certainly don't help his campaign to "shake up Springfield" as a so-called champion of fiscally conservative average Illinoisans who don't benefit from fee waivers when filing taxes. While he's reaching out to potential voters in new (humble) ways, Rauner might have to work even harder to evade the rich-guy stigma that derailed Romney in 2012. - NBC Chicago, 7/2/14
More and more, Rauner is looking like Romney and Illinois can't afford to have a Romney as their Governor. Meanwhile, Pat Quinn (D. IL) scored another big endorsement for his re-election bid:
http://politics.suntimes.com/...
Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday won the endorsement of the Illinois Education Association, the largest education employee union in the state.
It was a group that both Quinn, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, Bruce Rauner, spoke before earlier this year.
The IEA is made up of 130,000 teachers and other education professionals. The endorsement means financial resources as well as the strength of union membership to push out the vote. In the 2010 election cycle, the IEA gave Quinn $700,000, an IEA official said Wednesday.
It announced that the decision by the IEA Board of Directors was unanimous and that it came after an IEA panel interviewed both candidates. - Chicago Sun-Times, 7/2/14
This is going to be a tight race and Democrats need to get out to the polls if they want to beat Rauner in November. Click here to get involved and donate to Quinn's re-election campaign:
https://www.quinnforillinois.com/