Screwed six ways to Sunday: Paying Zero Taxes Edition.

[bleever]

As I listen to Republicans' outrage -- OUTRAGE! -- that Harry Reid would accuse Mitt Romney of paying zero taxes, it's clear that "paying zero taxes" has now been successfully defined in the public sphere as an Awful, Terrible Thing that no one should be accused of.

In fact, there could be good reasons that someone doesn't pay income taxes in a given year. Even wealthy people, under benign circumstances where their net worth contracts for one reason or another, might have an obligation of zero.

But instead of being able to say, "Sure, I paid no taxes in years X and Y, because of various losses in investment value and income, while other years I a paid pretty big sums", by virtue of the Republican outrage "paying no taxes" is defined as something criminal.


I'm very confident that Harry Reid didn't make this up, that Mitt really had years with a zero tax obligation, and that now he has nowhere to go.

[unblock]

1. my mother is a lawyer and she's had plenty of clients who pay zero taxes.

retirees who stick all their money in low interest municipal bonds just for the thrill of living off triple tax-free dividends.

[bleever]

2. Nothing to be ashamed of,

but the GOP is howling like he'd been accused of molesting Rafalca.

He could have owned this whole situation with honesty and some deeper narrative about the tax code and free enterprise.

[midnight]

3. I'm wondering if you could help the rest of us out..... Good lord... It's a way a life that many of

us don't live... Pardon me for being so stupid and paying way too much for the roads, schools, hospitals, etc..... Anne's horse....

[unblock]

4. the rich, as they say, are not like you and me....

[midnight]

5. True.... Thought you could unblock some of us from thinking otherwise... Pun intended...

[rgod8855]

6. There may be other reasons for not releasing taxes

I've been thinking about this. I don't think Romney is staying away from releasing his taxes just because of tax rates and the amount paid. It goes to not wanting to show people how he minimized his taxes. He has reasons for doing this. Read it here: http://commonelectionguide.blogspot.com/2012/08/why-romneys-effective-tax-rate-is-not.html