It’s no secret that former governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a wealthy man. His time at Bain Capital, a private equity company, has been used against him by his fellow GOP nominee hopefuls. Specifically, their attack ads suggest that his business practices benefit the “one percent” at the expense of the rest of the 99. But what his experience as both an expert on private equity and CEO actually means on his policies has been largely unexplored. Romney has assets which pays him a nice tidy $45 million dollar income, $22.5 million per year. He paid about $6 million in taxes for the period and gave away about $7 million in charitable contributions including $4.1 million to the Mormon Church, of which he is a member.
His tax rate according to the released documents is 13.9 percent. Romney clearly pays his taxes but the story told in these documents is of a man who is wealthy enough to never have to work again, who’s tax rate is far lower than equivalent wage earners because he’s taxed at the basic capital gains 15 percent rate before any deductions.
Benjamin Wallace-Wells is contributing editor for New York Magazine.
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