Josh Marshall has a post up at his Editor's Blog, about an exchange he had with one his readers. The reader (who has 10 years experience in private equity) starts out by telling Marshall he's missing the nuance of what Romney has been saying when defending himself against Harry Reid's accusations:
I think you’re missing a key nuance from Romney’s denials and indignation here. Note that the response always appears to be “I paid a lot of taxes” and not “I paid a lot of income taxes.”
Anyone making $10 to $20 million per year will pay a lot of taxes in absolute dollars — state taxes, property taxes, city taxes, sales taxes, etc. But the distinction you’re missing is whether or not these taxes were income taxes.
I've seen this mentioned before about Romney not specifically saying
income taxes. However, when Marshall writes back saying that Romney's base rate should have been 15% on capital gains, the long response suggesting Marshall look at the fact that Romney was selling his shares (assets) in Bain Capital to his other partners during this period is well worth a read, and ends with:
This is pure speculation — but I think you if you and your team worked a little harder talking to estate planning lawyers and trust experts who work with senior private equity partners and professionals (good luck getting them on the record, but it is really much more nuanced for private equity than your everyday run of the mill wealthy individual), you could sketch out a number of hypothetical situations and I think add more credibility to Reid’s position.
It’s entirely possible Romney paid zero income taxes, and possibly nominal capital gains taxes (i.e. less than 15 percent). In fact, since he wasn’t being paid income but presumably was liquidating his stake in Bain Capital, in the perspective of the IRS, he wasn’t earning any income — just selling assets (Bain management company back to his other partners).
I find it interesting that Romney is defending himself by claiming he
paid a lot of taxes, when Republicans often yell about how low wage earners don't pay any taxes neglecting to include all those taxes they do pay like "state taxes, property taxes, city taxes, sales taxes, etc."