For some people this alone would be a reason to torpedo President Obama.

WASHINGTON — To see where the presidential candidates stand on taxing the rich, just look at how they’d tax themselves. Under his own proposal, Mitt Romney would pay half what he would under President Barack Obama’s tax plan. For a man of Romney’s means, that could save almost $5 million a year.

For Obama, not so loaded as Romney but still well-off, losing re-election could provide a tax windfall. He’d save as much as $90,000 a year if Romney’s plan were enacted rather than his own tax-the-rich vision.

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“There’s quite a difference at higher incomes between the Obama and Romney plans,” said Gil Charney, principal tax researcher for the Tax Institute at H&R Block. “Obama is looking at the rich – millionaires and billionaires – as a source of additional revenue to the government, where Romney is looking at them as a potential spark for economic growth.”

Obama’s plan would hit couples making more than $250,000 per year from several directions, raising their tax rate, dunning them more for investment income, and limiting their tax deductions. People like Romney with earnings from private equity management would lose a big tax break. And Obama would establish a rule, named after billionaire Warren Buffett, to ensure that households taking in more than $1 million a year pay at least 30 percent in taxes.

Obama’s health care law, already in place, also raises Medicare taxes on the wealthy, especially big investors, starting in 2013. That could cost Romney more than $800,000.