Who is exactly the sort of “millionaire & billionaire” that the"Buffett Rule" would hit? Mitt Romney

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What Mitt Romney Has to Lose–and Obama Has to Gain–from the ‘Buffett Rule’

When Barack Obama talks about taxes these days, he likes to talk about Omaha billionaire Warren Buffett’s secretary. “Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires,” Obama announced last month in the Rose Garden. “Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett.” But if Mitt Romney is able to clinch the Republican nomination for President next spring, Obama will have a better example to talk about.
That’s because Romney, a wealthy man whose income mostly comes from long-term investments, is exactly the sort of “millionaire and billionaire” that Obama likes to hold up for scrutiny, since the source of Romney’s income allows him to pay a lower percentage of his money to the federal government each year than many middle-class wage earners.

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And this is exactly the dynamic that Obama and Buffett have been talking about in recent weeks: For a select group of wealthy investors, the regular income tax structure simply does not apply. (Buffett claims to pay just 17% of his net income in taxes.) It pays to be an investor in a way that it does not pay to be a high paid actor or professional sports star. If Romney made the same amount of income in 2010 as he declared, but it all came as a direct salary, McIntyre calculates that he would have paid something closer to 30% of his net income in taxes. “There is no justification for it,” Obama said in the Rose Garden. “It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million.”

On the campaign trail, Romney has defended the 15% tax rate on capital gains, which is set to expire in the coming years. “The President’s party want to take from some and give to others,” Romney said in a recent debate. “That isn’t the way to lift America.” And while other Republicans running for President have proposed lowering or eliminating the capital gains tax for wealthy individuals, Romney has tried to cast himself as a defender of the middle class. His economic plan would maintain the 15% capital gains rate for those making more than $200,000 in total income, and eliminate any capital gains tax on those making less than $200,000.

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However, any tax reform plan put forward by Obama would likely have a significant impact on Romney’s returns. And perhaps more importantly, if Romney wins the nomination, Obama will have a great line to use in debates and on the stump. He wouldn’t just be running against Romney, he’d be running against the large tax advantage that a millionaire investor’s income provides.

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/#ixzz1Zj3G1W7N

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