After R-money released his 2011 tax returns on Friday night (of all media times) and declared that he paid just under 14% and claimed an average of a 20% tax rate average annual effective tax rate of about 20.2 percent between 1990 and 2009 in a PriceWaterhouseCooper summarized report, not the actual returns.
Besides getting that extension to doctor the charitable amount to keep the campaign pledge to a certain percentage, there is still nothing to show to the contrary that he probably still has those blocking accounts to shield the completely unexplained stuffed IRA that had impossible deposits from time to time.
"Mysteries also arise when one looks at Romney’s individual retirement account at Bain Capital. When Romney was there, from 1984 to 1999, taxpayers were allowed to put just $2,000 per year into an I.R.A., and $30,000 annually into a different kind of plan he may have used. Given these annual contribution ceilings, how can his I.R.A. possibly contain up to $102 million, as his financial disclosures now suggest?" (Shaxson, "Where the Money Lives", "Vanity Fair", Aug 2012)
"All we know is really that it's a big number, and we're a little bit baffled as to how it got so big,' Sheppard says. Candidates list their assets in broad ranges, so we know Romney's retirement account is worth somewhere between $21 million and $102 million. Law professor Ed Kleinbard of the University of Southern California says that's a lot of money considering the most Romney could ever contribute to the account was $30,000 a year." (Horsley, NPR, Sept 23, 2012)
(Horsley, NPR, Sept 23, 2012) "Either Gov. Romney is sort of the modern-day equivalent of Jack and his magic beans, who somehow created a mighty beanstalk, or he took a very aggressive position with respect to valuing insider stock,' Kleinbard says."
And all those Cayman/Bermuda accounts in his so-called "blind trust" to keep running that 15% max tax rate he enjoys as "carried interest" only allowed as compensation to certain ACTIVE private-equity execs, even though he claims to have retired from Bain long ago. This IS unethical on it's face.
"Why would anybody (or anybody’s blind-trust manager) put his money in the Cayman Islands if there were no tax benefit? Douglas Holz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office Director who advised John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008, and now runs a conservative think tank, offered this explanation a couple of days ago on the National Review Web site: ' Almost everybody with a global business has a Cayman subsidiary, as do many U.S. colleges and universities. Why? First and foremost, any venture interested in having the participation of foreign investors needs a location that has a strong rule of law, well-developed financial services, and is outside the reach of the IRS. International investors need the protections and financial services, and have no desire to have their investments entangled with the IRS. The Caymans, along with Bermuda, the Bahamas, and others fit the bill." (Noah, "Romney Claims No Tax Advantage In The Caymans", "The New Republic", Sept 21, 2012)
(Noah Sept 21, 2012) "Now, it’s my understanding that the IRS is in business to collect taxes. So if you want your money to be “outside the reach of the IRS” that means you don’t want the IRS to take it away. How can Holz-Eakin and Romney claim otherwise? It turns out they’re playing word games. The taxes you evade by putting your money in the Caymans aren’t your own personal income taxes, but your offshore investment fund’s corporate income taxes."
(Noah Sept 21, 2012) "In striking contrast to nearly every other developed country, the United States continues to tax worldwide earnings of corporations. Thus, for example, if an international investment headquartered in the Caymans earns $100 in Brazil, it will first pay the $15 in tax due to Brazil. For other international investors, that is the end of the story."
(Noah Sept 21, 2012) "U.S. investors, however, must then pay a second layer of tax to the U.S. government, bringing their tax rate up to the U.S. level of 35 percent. This additional $20 is owed, however, only when the earnings are brought back to the United States (“repatriated”). If the funds merely flow back to the Cayman-based subsidiary, the tax is not yet due."
He's been flat out lying about the "blind trust" administrator, even though it's been publicly known that it's one and the same as his own privately retained lawyer, so he can keep the "attorney-client privilege" going to direct the accounts discreetly.
"The Romneys’ blind trust was created when Mitt was elected governor of Massachusetts. (...)The director and president of this entity is R. Bradford Malt, the trustee of the blind trust and Romney’s personal lawyer." (Shaxson, "Where the Money Lives", "Vanity Fair", Aug 2012)
(Shaxson 2012) “What Romney does not get,” says Jack Blum, a veteran Washington lawyer and offshore expert, “is that this stuff is weird.” (...) The Washington Post summarized the opinions of experts across the political spectrum by saying Romney’s disclosures were “the most opaque they have encountered.”
The key is obviously to transfer funds to your offshore account to safeguard it there, where it will build by interest and or as collateral for any loans you may wish to take, all tax free until the funds are repatriated. But most never are, according to the offshore banking industry and government sources.
" Mitt Romney saved himself hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes in 2010 by transferring stock in two companies from his personal account to a nonprofit entity he set up. The stock maneuver included $172,397 in shares of Sensata Technologies, a company now under fire for a high-profile effort to offshore central Illinois jobs to China." (Grim and Carter, Sept 23, 2012)
(Grim and Carter, Sept 23, 2012) "Romney had received the Sensata stock as part of a Bain payout; he listed no cost for it on his tax return. By transferring that stock to his nonprofit Tyler Charitable Foundation, he avoided roughly $25,000 in capital gains taxes he would have owed. He also shaved an additional $50,000 off his tax bill by deducting the charitable contribution from his income."
(Grim and Carter, Sept 23, 2012) "In 2010, Romney also transferred about $1.3 million worth of stock in Domino's Pizza to his nonprofit, which shaved about $600,000 off his tax bill. He reported paying nothing for the pizza shares, having acquired them as part of Bain's takeover of the company."
So Rmoney's foreign holdings are his own best examples of some of the numerous loopholes that he claims he will close to support his "revenue neutral" magic budget.
As if these shortcomings weren't comprehensible to the average voter, much less the average investor. Give me a break (too) !
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