Income

Mitt Romney is on a charm offensive. He took reporters' questions after a campaign rally Thursday instead of keeping them at bay. He brought them warm chocolate chip cookies for the flight from Jacksonville to Palm Beach, Fla. After he got off the plane, he walked over to show reporters a picture of his 5-year-old grandson, Parker. It was "wild hair day" at school and the grandfather of 18 had to share what had just come into his iPad. "You know how he did that? With Elmer's Glue and egg whites.

I agree with the four May 14 letters about the cost and value of higher education, but I feel they missed a key point in the discussion regarding the original op-ed by John E. Sununu, " Students don't get what they pay for . " There is no doubt that better-educated people are a value to society, and those with liberal arts degrees definitely enrich our lives and culture. However, the value society places on a person is largely determined by the business world. What the marketplace is willing to pay anyone is not necessarily their value to society but...

Republican lawmakers are intensifying their demands for quick congressional action on the tax code. Forty-one Senate Republicans wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday, telling the Nevada Democrat that they want a vote this summer to head off tax increases that will automatically take effect on Jan. 1 unless Congress acts. Those increases would affect taxpayers across income levels. Separately, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp says he wants to combine a push to head off those tax increases with another effort to overhaul the entire tax code.

Gov. Rick Snyder and Republican legislative leaders worked out a budget agreement Wednesday that would allow for a small cut in individual income taxes, twice as much money for film credits, a slight increase in education funding and a down payment on school employees' health care costs in retirement. The tax cut would amount to $90 million, but most people might not notice it since wealthier taxpayers may save only around $100 and low-income families may save only $10. The state expects to receive nearly $7 billion in income tax revenue this fiscal year and nearly $8 billion next year.

The elderly in Massachusetts struggle with the nation's largest shortfall between income and costs, with the age group's median income covering only about 60 percent of basic living expenses here, according to a study to be released today. The study, a joint project of advocacy group Wider Opportunities for Women and University of Massachusetts Boston, compared income and expenses for the elderly in all 50 states and found that income in all cases fell short of basic expenses.

WASHINGTON - The top 1 percent of earners more than doubled their share of the nation's income over the past three decades, the Congressional Budget Office said yesterday, in a new report likely to figure prominently in the escalating political fight over how to revive the economy, create jobs, and lower the federal debt. In addition, the report said, government policy has become less redistributive since the late 1970s, doing less to reduce the concentration of income. "The equalizing effect of federal taxes was smaller" in 2007 than in 1979, as "the composition of federal...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Largely because of book deals and speaking fees, Wesley K. Clark, the Democratic presidential candidate, parlayed an income of $60,000 as a four-star general in 1999 into a 2002 private-sector salary of more than $1.6 million, according to his tax records. After retiring from the Army, Clark became an investment banker at Stephens Group Inc. of Little Rock, the largest investment firm that isn't on Wall Street. He quickly received consulting jobs and seats on the boards of several smaller or mid-sized corporations.

Nearly a quarter of working households in Massachusetts spend more than half their income on housing, according to a study released today by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Housing Policy. That is equal to the national average, according to the report based on the latest Census data. Nationwide, housing costs grew between 2008 and 2010 largely because of falling incomes and rising rental costs, the center said. Jeffrey Lubell, executive director of the housing center, said that many moderate-income homeowners suffered a drop in...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich paid 31 percent of his income in federal taxes in 2010, Gingrich told reporters today. The Associated Press reported that Gingrich revealed his tax rate while speaking to reporters in South Carolina. According to the Congressional Budget office, 31.2 percent was the effective tax rate on income for the top 1 percent of earners in 2010. That means Gingrich's rate was twice as high as the rate paid by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who said yesterday that he paid taxes at a 15 percent rate.

WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani reported $16.1 million in earned income over the past 16 months, most of it in speaking fees, according to financial documents filed yesterday. Democratic hopeful John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, in their own filings, reported $29.5 million in assets, including millions in a hedge fund Edwards worked for part time. Edwards's biggest single source of earned income was his $479,512 salary from Fortress Investment Group for consulting work last year.

Spain's National Court said Tuesday it had dropped its investigation into the country's top banker — Banco Santander chairman Emilio Botin — and 11 of his relatives over possible income and wealth tax evasion. The case focused on tax returns filed between 2005 and 2009 on accounts the family held in Switzerland's HSBC Private Bank (Suisse). The court said the probe showed the Botin family had normalized its tax situation before the investigation was opened last year.

Software company Autodesk Inc. said Thursday that is first-quarter profit rose 14 percent as revenue rose sharply, but the company said that its second quarter sales will be lower than Wall Street expected and its shares tumbled almost 8 percent in aftermarket trading. Autodesk said it expects revenue in the current quarter to be between $580 million and $600 million. Analysts were expecting $600.6 million, according to a survey by FactSet. The company said it expects its adjusted net income in the quarter will be between 46 cents per share and 51 cents per share.

Republican lawmakers are intensifying their demands for quick congressional action on the tax code. Forty-one Senate Republicans wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday, telling the Nevada Democrat that they want a vote this summer to head off tax increases that will automatically take effect on Jan. 1 unless Congress acts. Those increases would affect taxpayers across income levels. Separately, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp says he wants to combine a push to head off those tax increases with another effort to overhaul the entire tax code.

New Hampshire voters would be asked to make the state's lack of a personal income tax part of the state constitution under a bill passed by the Senate. The Senate voted 20-4 Thursday in favor of a constitutional amendment banning a personal income tax. The bill already has passed the House, but the Senate version includes different language aimed at clarifying what constitutes a "person" or "new tax. " Supporters argued that a constitutional prohibition is critical to helping the state maintain its economic advantage over other states.

Shares of Staples Inc. fell 6 percent on Wednesday after the largest U.S. office supply retailer reported slumping overseas sales dragged down its first-quarter results. The results add to the growing body of evidence that "big box" stores are losing relevance with American shoppers, who are growing increasingly likely to buy office supplies at discounters or online. Staples has been shielded from this trend because it is bigger than its rivals and has a strong base of business customers and more of an overseas presence.

Scientific instrument maker Agilent Technologies Inc. said Monday that its fiscal second-quarter net income rose 28 percent on stronger orders and higher revenue, beating Wall Street expectations and sending shares up nearly 3 percent in after-hours trading. Agilent Technologies said that orders rose 8 percent during the quarter. Orders in the electronic measurement division jumped 13 percent from last year, driven by wireless manufacturing. Overall, during the quarter ended April 30 Agilent earned $255 million, or 72 cents per share, up from $200 million, or 56...

WASHINGTON — Call it the migration bust: Many of the fast-growing US areas during the housing boom are now yielding some of the biggest income drops in the economic downturn. That could have a broad impact on the political map in the coming weeks. Voters discontent over the economy and issues such as immigration head to the polls Nov. 2 to decide whether to keep Democrats in Congress. Whites and blacks have taken big hits since 2007 in once-torrid Sunbelt regions offering warm climates and open spaces, including Florida, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada, according to 2009...

After a three-decade tripling in childhood obesity rates, the trend has leveled off and, for the first time, appears to be on a substantial decline - at least among Massachusetts infants and preschoolers, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. Researchers at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute found that the percentage of obese girls under age 6 dropped from 9 percent to slightly more than 6 percent from 2004 to 2008; the percentage of obese boys under age 6 fell from nearly 11 percent to just under 9 percent during the same time...

A new report says Michigan's low-income working families will pay an estimated $244 million more in state income taxes next year because of reductions in the state's earned income tax credit. The Michigan League for Human Services released the report Monday. It says the state earned income tax credit in 2009 reduced taxes for low-income families by $349 million, but that saving will drop to $104 million for 2012. Lawmakers last year reduced the credit from 20 percent of the federal earned income tax credit to 6 percent.