I looked at Mitt Romney’s tax return which was published in the paper. Much was made of his low tax rate. The problem is the nuances that are missed by most media. First, he has millions of dollars of “qualified” dividend income. Qualified dividends are taxed at 15%. The rub is that they’ve already been taxed at corporate rates as high as 35% before they were issued as dividends. So, in reality this income has already had a 50% tax. Long term capital gains are taxed at 15%. However, many times such gains include inflation, yet the tax basis is not adjusted for inflation. Meaning that the recipient is being taxed on inflation in addition to real gains. This is one reason given as to why there is a lower capital gains rate so that they don’t have to get into adjusting basis to inflation (or deflation). Note he also paid a alternative minimum tax of several hundred thousand dollars. I also note that in a two year period he gave over $4 Million to charity. He also apparently gave a large percentage of it to the LDS Church. Anyway, as I said, its very nuanced and not something that is clear cut.