Where did that number come from?

I’m just speculating here, but something occurred to me after seeing yet another article about Romney saying that he paid at least 13% in taxes over the last few years.  When I put that together with several people observing that the claims from the Romneys have carefully omitted the word ‘income’ as in income tax, I had a thought.

It is quite possible that Romney paid 0% in income tax over the last few years and still paid 13% in taxes.  If you recall he made a little money (I’m paraphrasing here) from speaking engagements.  That was something in the neighborhood of $400k and Romney may have ways to shelter that from income tax.  But that money would be classified as earned income, as opposed to his investment income, and some of it would be taxable for Social Security and Medicare purposes.

As a self-employed person (he currently lists himself as a self-employed writer) Romney would be liable for the full tax.  By a strange coincidence, FICA is currently at 13.2%.

That’s the sort of thing that makes me go, hmm.