How Mitt Romney's Tax Rate Stacks Up: Comparing the Candidate To The Rest of Us

[kentay]

How Mitt Romney's Tax Rate Stacks Up: Comparing the Candidate To The Rest of Us
Clayton Ashley / TPM

Now that Mitt Romney's confirmed what we've long suspected about his effective federal tax rate -- "It's probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything" -- we have a fact worth contextualizing. Though it could easily be less, assume Romney effectively pays 15 percent in taxes on all his income to the federal government. How does he stack up to the rest of us, most of whom are regular wage earners? When you account for the fact that most people also pay payroll taxes, and don't enjoy enormous deductions, credits or other benefits, you see that Romney's making out about as well as a taxpayer who makes $50,000 a year. Not bad for a man whose net worth is estimated to be in the nneighborhood of a quarter billion dollars.

Chart:
http://media.talkingpointsmemo.com/slideshow/mitt-romney-taxes?ref=fpblg

[kentay]

The one tax graph you really need to knowhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/19/heres-why-the-47-percent-argument-is-an-abuse-of-tax-data/