Annie
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- Nov 22, 2003
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Mitt Romney’s vast charitable giving—John Podhoretz - NYPOST.com
Romney not only to be admired, but to be an example:
Romney not only to be admired, but to be an example:
...So, to recap: Mitt Romney has, in the past two years, paid almost $5 million in taxes while giving away $7 million. And, as he said, he has paid the taxes he was supposed to pay according to the laws of the United States, which is all that is required legally, morally and practically of anyone.
...
You will hear it said, by people who are either ignorant or have an axe to grind, that the charitable deduction is a tax shelter. It is anything but.
Shelters are investments that work to protect money from being taxed by the government. In effect, every dollar in them is put there either so that it can earn money or so that it can be used to lower a persons tax burden.
Now consider the dollar given to charity. If youre Mitt Romney, your dollar would be taxed at a rate of 35 percent by the federal government the highest rate. When you give that dollar to charity, you are, in effect, excused from paying 35 cents of it to the government.
But heres the key: You dont get the other 65 cents back.
If you simply kept that dollar for yourself and paid tax on it, youd still have 65 cents of it in the bank.
By giving that dollar away to charity, you lose that 65 cents entirely. It goes to the charity, as does the 35 cents youd have paid to the IRS.
Its likely, given these numbers, that over the past 20 years the Romneys have donated more than $50 million to charity. Do the math: Under current tax law, if hed kept the money, hed have $30 million more than he has now. (Thats extremely inexact, but you get the idea.)...