I don't think Obama's doing anything wrong either. It's perfectly legal. However, it's very hypocritical of him to slam Romney and the people who take advantage of loopholes claiming it's so unfair to the middle class while he's doing the exact same thing.
He didn't pay a lower rate. He paid taxes on the money when he initially earned it and is now being taxed again on the gains he made from reinvesting that money.
For the record - I don't think Obama, Romney or even Buffet has done anything wrong. If I were any of their CPA I would do what they are doing. I just get tired of of wealthy continually being accused of exploiting loopholes and everything else short of saying outright fraud when it's not the truth.
I invested money already earned on my education and am taxed on my salary.... I could go with not taxing principle, but the return is new money earned. It should be taxed like a salary, imo.
correct and they all get taxed at the same rate (romney and you). romney just happens to have a shitload more of it than the average person.
the intent is to encourage investment. raise taxes on investments to the maximum tax rate and a lot of people will undoubtably chose more tax efficient investments like real estate or municipal bonds. and for some reason no one seems to be willing to elminate all the tax loopholes that exist in real estate. all we hear about is marginal tax rates and capital gain rates. the real screwjob to the american public taxwise is real estate.
I think the argument is the wealthy have a disproportionate amount of control on how the system is set up and changed over time, and are thus generally able to watch after their interests moreso than the common person. It isn't necessarily personal, but rather systemic with the way our congress and political system works.
I understand that. What puzzles me is to me it seems that money is created and vanishes into thin air when investing in certain areas. I could learn the system if I had an interest in doing so. I find it laborious and boring.
on capital gains on investments yes (i'm willing to bet his ordinary income is taxed at the max). that is unless your tax rate is below 20%.
It doesn't vanish, the value just goes up or down like with anything. Baseball cards use to bring big money. Now people don't want them, the value goes down. If I paid 100 dollars for one card, and now can only get 60 for it. The money didn't just vanish, but the value went down. This happens with everything stocks, real estate, and NASCAR memorabilia.
