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I heard someone recently give kudos to Mitt Romney for paying extra tithing. This made me wonder, would you give someone kudos for paying extra federal taxes? After all, some federal funding goes toward charity and helping everyone drive on safe roads. Giving is giving, right?

So, kudos to the fed tax over achiever?

zeezrom wrote:I heard someone recently give kudos to Mitt Romney for paying extra tithing. This made me wonder, would you give someone kudos for paying extra federal taxes? After all, some federal funding goes toward charity and helping everyone drive on safe roads. Giving is giving, right?

So, kudos to the fed tax over achiever?

And yet Romney's stated attitude to tax is "I pay all the taxes owed and not a penny more".

You'd think he might be grateful to his fellow Americans for being part of the society that made it possible for him to get so rich, and want to give back a bit more than the legal minimum ... oh wait a minute, his family background made him pretty rich to begin with, so perhaps he owes other people just plain squat ...

My own view is that Romney deliberately engineered this particular tax return in an effort for it to reflect well on him during the presidential campaign. He gave more in "charitable giving" (is the Mormon Church really a charity/) and did not claim other "giving". He is taking flack for earning so much and yet paying only around 14% in taxes. If he hadn't given more than required to his "charities" and if he had claimed all the deductions he was entitled to his tax rate would have been closer to 9%. I am not saying he did anything illegal but publicity over only a 9% rate of tax would not have reflected well on him with huge numbers of voters given his high income.

Thank you for the thoughtful replies. It makes sense.

But I still wonder... would you give kudos to a person who is a fed tax paying over achiever? Why or why not?

zeezrom wrote:Thank you for the thoughtful replies. It makes sense.

But I still wonder... would you give kudos to a person who is a fed tax paying over achiever? Why or why not?

Question: wasn't Romney's 2011 tax return just recently completed and thus recently divulged? Is there any question that he had the ability to take the criticism of his taxpaying ways into consideration when those documents were created?

I guess I would give kudos to someone who paid more taxes than necessary, if they had the money to burn. Personally, I would want to give money more directly to specific causes, but whatever. Better to overpay taxes than hoard it in overseas accounts.

I don't know if it is revealed the recipient(s) of his $4M, but seems safe to assume at least half of it was tithing. The Mormon church is not a charity. I would like to see tax reform that would cap tithing deductions to maybe $1000, period.

Which makes me wonder about something else. Did he take the deduction for his tithe?

zeezrom wrote:So, kudos to the fed tax over achiever?

Bah! you are only talking hum-drum schools and roads with tax money. Tithing can give you luxurious shopping experiences at delightful urban malls.

That tithing money made no difference to Romney's life at all. More kudos are due to the working poor LDS who pay tithing despite the fact that they really needed that money to survive. Or maybe it's not kudos they're due but pity.