(The image of Greg Abbott above is from the website of Progress Texas.)The following post is from Lone Star Project:
Disclosing information like income tax filings late on a Friday to avoid press coverage is standard political behavior. However, distorting and manipulating the information to hide the facts is patently dishonest. Last Friday, Greg Abbott did just that – he selectively added, and withheld other, important information in a press statement to hide the fact that he paid only $104 in federal income taxes last year – a rate of under one percent – which is far less than what the average Texan pays.
According to tax documents he made public, Abbott was paid $134,000 in salary as the Attorney General last year. Rather than being straight up and stating that he took advantage of a series of deductions, exemptions and exclusions to reduce his tax bill to only $104, he implied that he had a 39.96 percent tax burden due in large part to property taxes – most of it on his approximately million dollar home
It was a sleazy move. Greg Abbott included his property taxes to mask his actual income tax payment. Abbott also, of course, did not mention that he is a very wealthy man as a result of a multi-million dollar personal injury settlement he was awarded and that is paid to him as an annuity. Abbott pays NO taxes on his multi-million dollar personal injury settlement.
