Most of the time God,Pratt & Whitney or General Electric, will give you another turn in the Barrel.

These are my opinions and my opinions only they do not reflect the opinions of any of my family members or their employer. Note we NOW have NO employers.

Back from a 5.5 Year PCS from the confines of the far Southwest corner of Bundesrepublik Deutschland. The Federal Republic of Germany and Retired.

Friday, October 19, 2012

How much money did you make today how does it compare to the Presidential Candidates? Or not so much fun with numbers


I do not know what started me down this path, but it would not let me go.  In this little exercise of basic mathematic we will take Barack H Obama, and Willard M Romney (Order of citation determined by alphabetical order of last Name) Income Tax Number as reported by each candidate, and see what we can see.
The Candidates Data
2010 reported Adjusted Gross Income Barack H. Obama $1,728,096.00 Dollars. Charitable Contributions $245,075.00 Dollars, Federal Income Tax paid $416,734.00 Dollars
2011 Reported Adjusted Gross Income Barack H. Obama $789,674.00 Dollars, Charitable Contributions $172,130.00 Dollars, Federal Income Tax paid $162,074.00 Dollars.
2010 reported Adjusted Gross Income Willard M. Romney $21,661,344.00 Dollars, Charitable Contributions $2,983,974.00 Dollars, Federal Income Tax paid $3.009,766.00 Dollars
2011 Reported Adjusted Gross Income Willard M. Romney $20,901,075.00 Dollars. Charitable Contribution $$4,020,572.00 Dollars, federal Income Tax paid $3,226,623.00 Dollars.
The First Pass
In 2010 after taxes and charitable contributions Barack H. Obama was left with $1,066,287.00 Dollars or $2,921.33 Dollars per Day.
In 2010 after taxes and charitable contributions Willard M. Romney was left with $15,667,604.00 Dollars or $42,924.94 Dollars per Day.
In 2011 after taxes and charitable contributions Barack H. Obama was left with $455,470.00 Dollars or $1,247.86 Dollars per Day.
In 2011 after taxes and charitable contributions Willard M. Romney was left with $13,653,880.00 Dollars or $37,407.89 Dollars per Day.
The Second Pass
In 2010 Willard M. Romney took 24.84 days to make what Barack H. Obama made in 365 days.
In 2011 Willard M. Romney took 12.17 days to make what Barack H. Obama made in 365 days
The Third Pass
How does it compare to the averages?  The most recent averages I could locate were for 2008.  In 2008 John Q. Average Adjusted Gross Income, $58,006.00 Dollars. Charitable Contributions $4,412.00 Dollars, Federal Income Tax paid $7,242.00 Dollars (note see the below discussion as to how these number were developed).
In 2008 after taxes and charitable contributions John Q, Average was left with $46,352.78 Dollars or $126.99 Dollars per day.
For the sake of argument agree that these number are going to be in the ballpark (+/- 10 Percent) for 2010 and 2011, in other words they are not going to change by an order of magnitude.
In 2010 Willard M. Romney would require only 1.079 Days to make what John Q. Average made in 365 days.
In 2010 Barack H. Obama would require only 15.87 Days to make what John Q. Average made in 365 days.
Fourth Pass
We could flip it around the other way.  John Q. Average would have to work 338 days to make what Willard M. Romney made in 1 day in 2010.  John Q. Average would have to work 23 days to make what Barack H. Obama made in 1 day in 2010.
End of the Trail
These are just numbers and simple calculation done by a simple old man what you do with them is up to you, what if any conclusions you draw from them are entirely up to you.  They are just something to think about.

(How John Q. Average numbers were developed for those who are interested)
The latest data I could find is available from the United State Government is “The 2012 Statistical Abstract, The National Data Book” link below
In particular reports number 488, “Individual Income Tax Returns—Number, Income Tax, and Average Tax by Size of Adjusted Gross Income” and number 489” Federal Individual Income Tax Returns—Selected Itemized Deductions and the Standard Deduction”.
The most current reporting period is for the year 2008, but it should be close enough for practical purposes in this comparison. (I do not anticipate an order of magnitude change between 2008, and or 2010 and 2011.)
In 2008 there were 142,450,569 tax returns filed in the United States (That in it self is a pretty amazing number), the aggregate reported AGI was $8,264,000,000,000.00 Dollars for an average of $58,006.00 Dollar per return filed.  In 2008 a total of $1,031,580,923,000.00 Dollars of Federal Income taxes was reported as collected.  In 2008 there was an average of $7,242,00 Dollars per tax collected for each return filed.  Finally in 2008 a total of 39,200,000 tax returns were filled with itemized cash charitable contribution (Again an amazing number).  A total of $172,936,000,000.00 dollars of charitable contributions were reported on these filed tax returns, or $4,412.00 Dollars of Charitable Contribution per file tax return with an itemized charitable contribution.

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