It's Starting To Look Like Romney Has A Dirty Tax Secret

[kentay]

Kenneth Thomas, Middle Class Political Economist on Jul. 6, 2012
Mitt Romney has so far released only one year of tax returns (2010), plus an estimate for 2011. This stands in stark contrast to his father, Michigan Governor George Romney, who released 12 years of tax returns when he began running for President in 1967. As his father said at the time, "One year could be a fluke." So the questions remain about what is in Romney's older returns.

Two stories this week and last have ratcheted up the pressure. One is a recent web exclusive for "The Last Word with Laurence O'Donnell" where David Cay Johnston has five questions for Romney that can only be answered with his tax returns. The other is a blockbuster story by Nicholas Shaxson (h/t TPM) in the new Vanity Fair on the shadowy world of Romney's tax havens. Together, they put a laser-like focus on the finances of the man who could become our 45th President.

Johnston is a well-known former New York Times reporter, Pulitzer Prize winner, and the author of the major books Perfectly Legal and Free Lunch. If you don't have time to watch his 3:45 video, here are the five questions:

"1. Did you buy any illegal or gray area tax shelters?
"2. Did an IRS audit ever uncover serious problems with any of your tax returns?
"3. Did you make use of offshore vehicles to defer, or avoid paying, federal income taxes?
"4. Did you take advantage of any tax strategies that the IRS did not uncover in audits?
"5. Did you fully tithe to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints every year and take a deduction on your tax return that shows that?"

These are important questions. We know that Governor Romney has had a Swiss bank account, as well as money in other tax havens like the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Bermuda, and Ireland. Romney's answer to any question about his taxes has basically been, "Trust me." But the guy's running for President, for Pete's sake. He owes us more than that.

Shaxson, a researcher for the Tax Justice Network and author of the book Treasure Islands, asks us to consider the possibility that maybe not everything Romney has done tax-wise has been legal. He opens with a story told by a former Bain employee about how Romney encouraged him to lie to get secret information on competitors. There is, of course, the fact that Romney has funds parked in numerous tax havens and the fact that his supposedly "blind" trust invested in a business started by Romney's son Tagg, and the fact that he has $102 million in his IRA despite a contribution limit of $2000 per year for the entire 15 years Romney ran Bain. Obviously nothing to see here...

The standard answer of the Romney campaign to all this is that he always followed the law. As Jon Stewart had to point out since the major media did not, Romney did plenty to affect the law he was supposedly "just following," including his defense of the "covered interest" tax loophole that let him treat his fees at Bain as if they were capital gains (15% tax) rather than wages (35% tax). All perfectly legal and as Johnston points out in his book by that name, that is the real scandal.

http://www.businessinsider.com/its-starting-to-look-like-romney-has-a-dirty-tax-secret-2012-7

[clistensprechen]

He definitely wants to hide a bunch of things. He wants your faith-based vote (trust him just cuz he says so).

[kentay]

He definitely wants to hide a bunch of things. He wants your faith-based vote (trust him just cuz he says so).

Romney Invested Millions in Chinese Firm That Profited on US Outsourcinghttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/bain-capital-mitt-romney-outsourcing-china-global-tech

[wbcoleman]

Nancy Pelosi.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

[kentay]

Nancy Pelosi.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

Nancy Pelosi.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz are Democrats, what are you trying to say WBC kentay

[clistensprechen]

Nancy Pelosi.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

Nancy Pelosi.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz are Democrats, what are you trying to say WBC kentay

If WBC is saying that Dems are just as bad as Reps, he'd be right, and so would Ralph Nader who pointed all this out to everybody in 2000 and prior.

However, just because both sides do it, it doesn't make it right.

[Ted S]

If WBC is saying that Dems are just as bad as Reps, he'd be right, and so would Ralph Nader who pointed all this out to everybody in 2000 and prior.

However, just because both sides do it, it doesn't make it right.

This is pretty alarming; I agree with Clara.

Where Clara and I seem to disagree however is that since both sides are guilty, I want to take power and privilege away from both whereas she seems to think that we just need to find the right guys to lead us to Utopia.

[wbcoleman]

Nancy Pelosi.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

Nancy Pelosi.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz are Democrats, what are you trying to say WBC kentay

If WBC is saying that Dems are just as bad as Reps, he'd be right, and so would Ralph Nader who pointed all this out to everybody in 2000 and prior.

However, just because both sides do it, it doesn't make it right.

Run, Ralph, Run!!!

[kentay]

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/obama-bain-romney-prove-it.php?ref=fpb

[Woody]

Wow!  The Obama campaign challenging anyone to release information?  Fast and Furios anyone?

[clistensprechen]

If WBC is saying that Dems are just as bad as Reps, he'd be right, and so would Ralph Nader who pointed all this out to everybody in 2000 and prior.

However, just because both sides do it, it doesn't make it right.

This is pretty alarming; I agree with Clara.

Where Clara and I seem to disagree however is that since both sides are guilty, I want to take power and privilege away from both whereas she seems to think that we just need to find the right guys to lead us to Utopia.

Wrong. There is no Utopia, not even a conservative Utopia although you seem to think there is such a thing.

What I *actually* think is that we could use an American Spring but without opening the door to warlord-ism as has been the case in a few of those Arab Spring nations. As in the Occupy Movement.

[wbcoleman]

If WBC is saying that Dems are just as bad as Reps, he'd be right, and so would Ralph Nader who pointed all this out to everybody in 2000 and prior.

However, just because both sides do it, it doesn't make it right.

This is pretty alarming; I agree with Clara.

Where Clara and I seem to disagree however is that since both sides are guilty, I want to take power and privilege away from both whereas she seems to think that we just need to find the right guys to lead us to Utopia.

Wrong. There is no Utopia, not even a conservative Utopia although you seem to think there is such a thing.

What I *actually* think is that we could use an American Spring but without opening the door to warlord-ism as has been the case in a few of those Arab Spring nations. As in the Occupy Movement.

There are no conservative utopias.  That's a leftist conceit.

[clistensprechen]

If WBC is saying that Dems are just as bad as Reps, he'd be right, and so would Ralph Nader who pointed all this out to everybody in 2000 and prior.

However, just because both sides do it, it doesn't make it right.

This is pretty alarming; I agree with Clara.

Where Clara and I seem to disagree however is that since both sides are guilty, I want to take power and privilege away from both whereas she seems to think that we just need to find the right guys to lead us to Utopia.

Wrong. There is no Utopia, not even a conservative Utopia although you seem to think there is such a thing.

What I *actually* think is that we could use an American Spring but without opening the door to warlord-ism as has been the case in a few of those Arab Spring nations. As in the Occupy Movement.

There are no conservative utopias.  That's a leftist conceit.

There are no such things as leftist conservatives. The conservatives who keep spouting that conservative ideals are ideal for the country are right-ists, not to mention Tea Party types who think that Dubya's Republicans are liberals.

[wbcoleman]

If WBC is saying that Dems are just as bad as Reps, he'd be right, and so would Ralph Nader who pointed all this out to everybody in 2000 and prior.

However, just because both sides do it, it doesn't make it right.

This is pretty alarming; I agree with Clara.

Where Clara and I seem to disagree however is that since both sides are guilty, I want to take power and privilege away from both whereas she seems to think that we just need to find the right guys to lead us to Utopia.

Wrong. There is no Utopia, not even a conservative Utopia although you seem to think there is such a thing.

What I *actually* think is that we could use an American Spring but without opening the door to warlord-ism as has been the case in a few of those Arab Spring nations. As in the Occupy Movement.

There are no conservative utopias.  That's a leftist conceit.

There are no such things as leftist conservatives. The conservatives who keep spouting that conservative ideals are ideal for the country are right-ists, not to mention Tea Party types who think that Dubya's Republicans are liberals.

The point is that conservatism as an ideology is anti-utopian.  Utopianism is the leftist conceit.

[Ted S]

The conservatives who keep spouting that conservative ideals are ideal for the country are right-ists, not to mention Tea Party types who think that Dubya's Republicans are liberals.

That's not right Clara. I don't think that humans are capable of creating a Utopia.  I simply think that traditional conservatism is much preferable to modern liberalism.  It brings a higher quality of life to a greater number of people.  Clearly some people are better off when other people run their lives but most aren't.