Romney: My Low Tax Rate ‘Puts People To Work’ (Video)
Mitt Romney on “60 Minutes” called his low tax rate of about 14.1% “fair” because it “put[s] people to work.” Romney, who opted to not include some of his charitable donations in his 2011 tax returns, which he released to the public on Friday, would have paid about 9% had he included all of his charitable deductions. Romney spoke with CBS News’ Scott Pelley Sunday evening, and seemed to suggest those who don’t work but live off investment income are doing America a favor by investing in the stock market and earning money that is taxed at a substantially lower rate.
Pelley: Now, you made on your investments, personally, about $20 million last year. And you paid 14 percent in federal taxes. That’s the capital gains rate. Is that fair to the guy who makes $50,000 and paid a higher rate than you did?
Romney: It is a low rate. And one of the reasons why the capital gains tax rate is lower is because capital has already been taxed once at the corporate level, as high as 35 percent.Pelley: So you think it is fair?Romney: Yeah, I think it’s the right way to encourage economic growth, to get people to invest, to start businesses, to put people to work.
Full transcript available here.
Watch the video of the Romney interview. Relevant section begins at 4:17:
http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/cbsnews_player_embed.swf
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