Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Political News
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Gingrich’s Tax Plan v. Romney’s Tax Plan
Following up on last week's post, Laffer: Gingrich's Tax Plan Beats Romney's: Anthony J. Nitti (WithumSmith & Brown, Aspen, CO), Gingrich Versus Romney, the Tax Proposals: [W]e’ve culled through each candidate’s published proposals and campaign rhetoric in an attempt to create a comprehensive comparison of their respective plans for tax reform, culminating in this “Tale of the Tax…
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Johnston: How Romney Would Tax Us
Reuters, How Romney Would Tax Us, by David Cay Johnston: The Republican frontrunner’s 160-page plan for jobs and economic growth, which he released in September, contains some sound ideas. He would encourage more Americans to save and invest. And one of his proposals would strengthen America’s status as a technological powerhouse. But there’s a side…
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NPR: Our Coverage of Romney’s Taxes Was Fair
NPR Ombudsman, Reporting On Romney's Taxes: Economics, History And Morality: Is Mitt Romney being treated unfairly in the coverage of the taxes he pays? Hardly. Some might find it rich even to raise the question, but many NPR listeners have, and it is journalistically and intellectually a valid question. … [M]any listeners wrote to complain…
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The Politics of Envy Is Contrary to the Bible
Wall Street Journal op-ed, What the Bible Teaches About Capitalism, by Aryeh Spero (Caucus for America): As the Ten Commandments instruct, envy is corrosive to the individual and to those societies that embrace it. Who would have expected that in a Republican primary campaign the single biggest complaint among candidates would be that the front-runner…
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Kleinbard: Mitt Romney’s Marvelously Unburdened Income
Edward Kleinbard (USC), Mitt Romney’s Marvelously Unburdened Income: Presentations like Romney and the Burden of Double Taxation, by John Berlau and Trey Kovacs in the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal on January 24th, have suggested that it is wrong to conclude that Governor Romney’s effective tax rate in 2010 was 13.9%, as widely…
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NY Times: Mitt Romney Paid More Taxes Than He Owed
New York Times, Romney Paid More Than He Owed, by Floyd Norris: Mitt Romney’s tax returns tell us some things about him. They tell us a lot more about the sad state of the tax laws in this country. When the candidate released his tax returns this week, the fact most noted was the low…
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Warren Buffett’s Secretary Likely Makes Between $200,000 – $500,000/Year
Forbes, Warren Buffett's Secretary Likely Makes Between $200,000 And $500,000/Year: Warren Buffet’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, served as a stage prop for President Obama’s State of the Union speech. She was the President’s chief display of the alleged unfairness of our tax system – a little person paying a higher tax rate than her billionaire boss. Bosanek’s…
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More on Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Romney’s Tax Returns Show Extent, Complexity of Wealth Linda Beale (Wayne State), Obama's State of the Union vs Romney's Tax Returns Chris Bergin (Tax Analysts), Romney’s Returns: Wrong Point Beltway Confidential, Romney Needs No Apology on Tax Returns Don't Mess With Taxes, Romney Releases 2010, 2011 Tax Returns Going Concern, What Are People…
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Mitt Romney Releases 2010 Tax Return, 2011 Estimate
Year AGI Tax Tax Rate Char. Gifts Charity/AGI 2011 20,901,075 3,226,623 15.4% 4,020,572 19.2% 2010 21,661,344 3,009,766 13.9% 2,983,974 13.8% Romney 2011 Tax Estimate Romney 2010 Tax Return Bloomberg CNN Future of Capitalism L.A. Times New York Times New York Times Wall Street Journal Washington Post Update: New York Times, The Candidates' Tax Returns
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Newt Gingrich Used ‘John Edwards Sub S Tax Shelter’ to Save $50k in Medicare Taxes
Forbes, Gingrich Used Payroll Tax Ploy Often Attacked By IRS, by Janet Novack: Newt Gingrich avoided tens of thousands of dollars in Medicare payroll taxes in 2010 by using a technique the IRS has consistently and successfully attacked. Republican Presidential candidate Gingrich and his wife, Callista, treated only $444,327 of what they got from Gingrich…
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Sullivan: Romney’s Other Tax Break
Martin A. Sullivan (Tax Analysts), Romney's Other Tax Break, 134 Tax Notes 267 (Jan. 23, 2012): Was it creative destruction or vulture capitalism? Whatever you call what Mitt Romney did at Bain Capital, it is now a multi-pronged challenge to his presidential aspirations. Just the mention of investment shops like Bain can stir up resentment with…
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An Empirical Analysis of Newt Gingrich’s Tax Plan
Nicholas Paleveda (CEO, National Pension Partners; Adjunct Professor, Northeastern Graduate Tax Program), Newt's Tax Plan: An empirical analysis of the flat tax proposed by Professor Gingrich Tax Policy Center, The Gingrich Tax Plan Tax Vox Blog, Gingrich’s Tax Plan: Big Tax Cuts, Big Deficits USA Today, Fact Check: Gingrich's Tax Plan Wall Street Journal, Gingrich…
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More on Mitt Romney’s Inevitable Disclosure of His Tax Returns
Following up on my prior posts (links below): New York Times, We Still Need To See Those Return, by Paul Krugman (Princeton University): Aha. Romney concedes that the estimates people have been making about his taxes are basically right: At an event in Florence, SC, Mitt Romney told reporters that his effective tax rate is…
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Mitt Romney, Bain Capital, and Tax Policy
Dan Shaviro (NYU), A Critique of Bain Capital: [T]he film … makes a specific claim about Romney's private equity career that deserves broader attention and assessment. The claim is that Bain's business model under Romney was as follows. They would buy a business and boost its short-term profitability through measures that did not actually increase,…
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Romney’s Doomed ‘Tax Returns for College Transcripts’ Strategy
Following up on my prior posts (links below): William Jacobson (Cornell), “Tax Returns for College Transcripts” Will Not Work: The second Mitt Romney announced he would not release his income tax returns if he becomes nominee I predicted it would not stand because the refusal would, at a minimum, create a major distraction. It’s part of a…
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Rick Santorum’s Tax Plan Is Criticized From All Sides
Made in America: Empowering American Families, Building Economic Freedom: Cut and simplify personal income taxes by cutting the number of tax rates to just two — 10% and 28% returning to the Reagan era pro-growth top tax rate Simplify the tax code and reduce middle income taxes by eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) Simplify…
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Obama Attacks Romney’s Refusal to Release His Tax Returns
Following up on my prior posts: Romney Refuses to Release His Tax Returns, Even If He Wins the Nomination (Dec. 23, 2011) More on Romney's Refusal to Release His Tax Returns (Dec. 27, 2011) President Obama's Twitter account asks: Why won't Mitt Romney release his tax returns?: For more, see Joshua Blank, In Defense of…
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More on Romney’s Refusal to Release His Tax Returns
Following up on last week’s post, Romney Refuses to Release His Tax Returns, Even If He Wins the Nomination: Bloomberg, Romney Plan to Keep Tax Return Private Breaks With Past: Mitt Romney, a multimillionaire who is by far the wealthiest of the Republican presidential candidates, said he has no plans to release his income tax…
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Linda Beale on Mitt Romney
Tax Prof Linda Beale (Wayne State) offers some thoughts on Mitt Romney: More on Romney's Privileged Roots (Dec. 26, 2011) Romney's Wall St. J. Interview with Gigot–Protecting the Rich (Dec. 25, 2011) Romney's Stance on Government Aide to Business: Bad If its For Others, Good If its For His Firm (Dec. 24, 2011)
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Romney Refuses to Release His Tax Returns, Even If He Wins the Nomination
Mitt Romney announced yesterday that he would not release copies of his tax returns if he is the Republican presidential nominee, breaking with a long tradition in both parties. Huffington Post, Mitt Romney Declines to Release Tax Returns, Cementing Posture of Secrecy New York Times, Romney Says He Won’t Release Tax Returns Politico, Here We…
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NY Times: Tax-Advantaged Buyout Profits Keep Flowing to Romney
New York Times, Buyout Profits Keep Flowing to Romney: Almost 13 years ago, Mitt Romney left Bain Capital, the successful private equity firm he had helped start, and moved to Utah to rescue the Salt Lake City Olympic Games and begin a second career in public life. Yet when it came to his considerable personal…
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Grading the Presidential Candidates’ Tax Plans
Tax Foundation, Presidential Candidate Tax Plan Report Card: Huntsman: B+ Perry: B Cain: B- Paul: B- Gingrich: C+ Bachmann: C Romney: C- Santorum: D+ Johnson and Roemer: incomplete
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By Declining $10,000 Bet, Rick Perry Spared Mitt Romney a $4,000 Tax Bill
Forbes: By Declining $10,000 Bet, Rick Perry Spared Mitt Romney a $4,000 Tax Bill, by Janet Novack: By now, you’ve probably seen the video of Mitt Romney offering a $10,000 bet to Ricky Perry at Saturday night’s Republican Presidential debate and thought about the political ramifications. But what of the tax implications? … What if…
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Norquist Says Gingrich, Romney Good on Taxes, Could Win His Support
The Hill, Norquist says Gingrich, Romney Good on Taxes, Could Win His Support: Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are the two candidates with solid ideas on tax reform and the potential to win his support, anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist said Sunday. “They’ve both looked you in the eye and said they’re not going to raise…
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Super Committee May Bail on Taxes
New York Times, Deficit Panel May Put Off Tax Deliberation: The top Republican on the joint Congressional committee on deficit reduction did not exactly radiate confidence on Sunday about the panel’s ability to reach a sweeping bargain by its Nov. 23 deadline. Instead, he signaled that the panel was contemplating a procedure that would allow…