Romney on Tax Day: File Your Taxes…Or Your Extension
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Ryan McVay/Thinkstock(PITTSBURGH) — Sitting down with eight families Tuesday at a picnic table filled with pitchers of lemonade and bowls of potato chips, Mitt Romney offered advice this Tax Day: “File your taxes or your extension.”
“I just wanted on this Tax Day, actually, to start by reminding you to file your taxes or your extension, one or the other, and note that there are some differences in the campaign coming forward, which is the president, our current president, is intent on raising tax rates, particularly for small business,” said Romney, sitting down at the head of the table in dress pants and a tie.
Romney’s campaign revealed late last week that he had filed an extension for his 2011 income tax return and would release the documents when they are ready, sometime over the next six months.
Reviewing his own tax plan before addressing questions and concerns from the group at the table, Romney outlined the difference between his tax plan and the president’s.
“So my view is that the right course for America is to keep our tax burdens down to encourage small businesses to grow and hire and to make it easier for middle-income families, but the president’s orientation is to raise taxes and I happen to think that will slow economic growth, which is already slow and make it more difficult for us to create the jobs that people need,” said Romney.
“I would actually like to reshape the entire tax system, alright, that is what I’d like to do, and to simplify the system as opposed to all these little baby steps,” explained Romney. “I’d like to bring the rates down across the board by 20 percent and then limit deductions and exemptions, and particularly for those at a higher income level because I’m not looking to find a reduction in the burden paid by the top income earners.”
“I want the top income earners to continue to pay the share they’re paying now. But I do want to help middle income families find a way to make it easier to make ends meet,” he said. “So I hope I can get the rates down in a such a way that you’ll find the tax burden less.”
“By the way, if you don’t have to pay any money, any taxes on your interest or dividends or capital gains, that simplifies all the records of when you bought this mutual fund and did you sell this – I just want to make it a heck of a lot easier,” Romney continued.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio