Monday, August 20, 2012

RYAN'S TAX RETURNS


Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan released copies of is joint 2010 and 2011 federal income tax returns this past Friday.

Nothing particularly questionable or controversial that I could find. 

The biggest item of income in each year was wages of $153,000+ as a Congressperson (certainly more than Congresspersons are actually worth, but not very much when compared to the private sector).  There was also a nice amount of interest, dividends, royalties and capital gains from investments (much from what looked like family limited partnerships), and in 2011 substantial income from a trust resulting from the passing of his mother-in-law.  The trust income was not reported on his original return, but on an amended one – I expect due to late receipt of the K-1.  

The couple paid an effective tax rate (net federal income tax liability divided by Adjusted Gross Income) of approximately 16% for 2010 and 20% for 2011, and was a victim of the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) in both years.

In 2010 he paid payroll taxes on a household employee, but not in 2011.   

In 2010 he deducted mortgage interest, but did not deduct any real estate tax – although there would have been no additional tax benefit to such a deduction due to the dreaded AMT.  He did deduct real estate tax on his 2011 Schedule A.

They were not particularly charitable in 2010, donating only 1.2% of his AGI.  He was more so in 2011, donating 4%.

They claimed a residential energy Credit for insulation for 2010.

And their tax preparer for 2009 and 2010, a CPA for 2010 (and a different one for 2011) was not cheap.

Again – nothing questionable or controversial that I could find. 

The released returns did show that the couple is not particularly wealthy, with the least income of the 4 candidates – although BO would certainly consider them wealthy in 2011 since the trust pushed their gross income over the magic $250,000 mark.

So much for Ryan’s tax returns.  Let's see what the political pundents make of them.

TTFN

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