As April 15 approaches, regular people begin collecting and sorting documents and other paperwork that will eventually be strewn across the kitchen table or next to the desktop so they can file their federal income tax returns.
Most will fill out the forms themselves or run the numbers through tax preparation software or trot on down to their neighborhood H&R Block outlet. The result will likely total two or three sheets of paper since regular people generally don’t have elaborate financial dealings to tell the government about.
Lucky they aren’t like Mitt Romney, whose 2010 tax returns and estimated 2011 returns required 547 printed pages.
Think of the standard ream of office paper and toss 47 more on top of it. That’s the stack Romney’s accountants and lawyers had to ship to the IRS, prudently, I hope, in the postal service’s economical flat-rate box.
But clearly, the occasionally front-running Republican presidential candidate doesn’t need to pinch a few dollars here and there. The guy is rich, as illustrated by the returns he made public after being pestered to do so by his rivals and the pesky political media.
Said to be the most wealthy presidential candidate in a thick string of wealthy presidential candidates, Romney’s problem isn’t his total worth, estimated to be about a quarter of a billion. After all, his primary antagonist, Newt Gingrich, is no pitiable financial wretch, having reported income of $3.16 million in 2010.
Newt is not, however, in Mitt’s league. Romney made $21.7 million in 2010 and expects to report income of about $20 million for 2011. Nearly all of the income came from stock dividends and capital gains; little was earned. Because of this, he pays taxes at a less than 15 percent rate compared to regular people who pay at a 30 to 35 percent rate.
At one time, Romney did work for the money. He put on his trousers one leg at a time, drove to the office, issued orders, took a mid-morning beverage break, power-lunched, made decisions — that kind of thing. But lately, his only job has been to gain the White House. It is one of the few situations in which having gobs of money can become a problem.
Polls show that voters want a president who can understand where they’re coming from, who has walked in their shoes, who can identify with their struggles to pay the bills.
Romney, for all his business acumen, once converting a $30 million investment in a medical technology firm into a $342 million gain for his company, is seen as aloof, unfamiliar with the worries and lives of ordinary people.
Though he may very well have the skills to manage the complex affairs of a nation and its place in the world, if voters don’t see him as one of them, he will have a difficult time getting the job.
Still, Americans are a surprising bunch. They last elected a president who opponents had tried to characterize subtly and, in some cases, overtly as an other. But Romney’s hope to diffuse his otherness will not be easy to fulfill.
Earlier this week, he proclaimed that he pays “all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.” What is owed, however, is different from what is a fair share, and that is what Romney is confronting in his quest for Americans’ endorsement.
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Cynthia Oi can be reached at coi@staradvertiser.com.
