This “online tax calculator” can be found at www.barackobama.com where you click on “Romney Tax Calculator”. Plug in your annual family income, your filing status, and number of dependents, and it will calculate your tax savings (or tax increase) with each plan. (Note that there are a number of simplifying assumptions enumerated at the bottom of the tax calculator page that might vary the answers if your situation is different from most.)
For example: The tax calculator shows that a married person with two dependents and an annual family income of $40,000 will have an annual tax savings of $2,991 with President Obama’s plan. With Governor Romney’s plan this person will have a tax increase of $431. For you it will be different based upon your income, filing status, and number of dependents. Go to the calculator and see how you will fare under each plan.
Now, one might suspect that a tax calculator from barackobama.com might not put Mitt Romney’s tax plan in the best light — and indeed, his campaign has objected to the results. But independent organizations have checked the numbers, and say:
The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center: “Our major conclusion is that any revenue-neutral individual income tax change that incorporates the features Governor Romney has proposed would provide large tax cuts to high-income households, and increase the tax burdens on middle- and/or lower-income taxpayers.”
The Wall Street Journal: “A new study released Wednesday suggests that Mitt Romney’s tax plan would benefit the rich and hurt the poor and middle class, no matter how current blanks in the plan are filled in.”
Factcheck.org: “Romney has said he would offset the loss of personal income tax revenue (estimated at $360 billion a year by the Tax Policy Center) by reducing tax deductions and credits. And he has said he would do this while making sure that those at the top keep paying the same share of the tax burden they’re paying now… Romney has failed to produce evidence that what he promises is possible. And we judge that the weight of evidence and expert opinion is clear — it’s not possible.”
The “Romney Tax Calculator” is easy to use. Try it.
Dick Mastin
Alto