Romney refuses to disclose whether he paid a significant amount of income taxes before 2010
The headline above is the takeaway I get from the "disclosures" by the Romney campaign that just went up an hour or so ago. All they're saying is percentage of adjusted income spent on taxes, not whether the income is virtually eliminated by tax strategies like write-offs from capital losses. If the vast majority of his $250 million is in investments that lost money, and he made some money on speaking fees that paid normal income taxes, his overall tax bill would be not that much larger than someone in the upper middle class.
What they need to do is show the tax returns, which would give some way to examine if they've been playing games. Failing that, they should at least provide brief details with actual amounts paid in each of the years they've summarized, just like they did for 2011. If we believe the summaries released today, Romney did pay taxes every year, but we don't yet know if the taxes amounted to a hill of beans.
Posts
13 comments:
Whew, I'm glad he was able to show he wasn't one of the 47%!
Dr. Lumpus Spookytooth, phd.
@Brian
what do you mean by "playing games?"
I recommend you read "Throw Them All Out" by Peter Schweizer. It has nothing to do about global warming, the guy is not partisan. He thrashes dems and repubs alike.
If "playing games" means you think Romney used every trick in the book to pay lower taxes, I'm sure he did. The problem is that it's legal.
But what about Obama? He says the top earners should pay 35% of their income tax but he doesn't do it himself.
Throw Them All Out is a great read for everyone though, but it will anger people severely. The backdoor deals congress made during the Medicare part D expansion during Bush are very similar to what happened when the new health law was being fought over. John Kerry's stock investments during Medicare Part D are extremely suspicious. Out of about 100 stocks he invested in, he made returns on close to 92% of them. Can you say "insider trading?"
Congress should not be allowed to invest in the stock market.
"Frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become president." -- Mitt Romney, July 2012
“I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more,...I don`t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.” -- Mitt Romney on NBC News during GOP primaries
And in 2011... he'd apparently overpaid his taxes.
"Congress should not be allowed to invest in the stock market."
We have agreement!
I wonder if Mitt has violations of the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act (the BSA) he needs to hide.
A lot of Americans who had and/or have offshore or foreign accounts have run into trouble as a result of recently ramped up enforcement this.
The BSA was enacted to require any US person with a total of more than $10,000 offshore at any time in any year to report the existence of all the accounts held in that year to the Treasury Department. Enforcement was difficult to impossible due to the bank secrecy that was maintained by such places as the Caymans or Switzerland. Penalties were severe.
After 9/11 a decision was made to achieve the impossible and try to end bank secrecy worldwide. It was thought if the US authorities knew where every dollar in the world was, it seems, terrorist access to funds could be restricted or even stopped.
Dream large....
The Patriot Act duly increased the penalties and who could be penalized. You can be indicted on criminal charges, fined up to more than the value of what you had stashed away, and sent to jail for 10 years if they decide you are the big fish they want. Discussion presented to Congress on the history of the BSA and Patriot Act changes to it is here. More detail than most want or need to know is here
The lax previous enforcement, coupled with a sudden interest in changing the status quo driven by or under the cover of concern for terrorism, and success in changing the status quo, i.e. the UBS affair where Swiss bank secrecy was finally cracked open a bit by US federal authority, caught a pile of Americans off guard.
The question is, is Mitt Romney one of those who didn't report in every year since 1970 what he was doing with money in offshore jurisdictions?
Inquiring minds want to know....
Ummm, seen the latest?
Mitt Romney Calls U.S.A. a 'Foreign Country' in His Tax Returns
Can we see his birth certificate, please? ;)
As the owner of Bain, Mitt gave Mitt some options on Bain. Then, Mitt as Mitt, put the options into his IRA. Then, Mitt as A**hole, exercised the options and suddenly had millions of dollars in his IRA.
He's a moocher.
Dr. Lumpus Spookytooth,
Note: I am not making this comment to be a smartass and believe everyone will appreciat the humor.
It's almost an advantage that Obama has no business experience becuase there's nothing to criticize.
On the other hand, any shortcoming Romney has had in business has been pointed to as a failure.
Romney's latest display of genius...
“When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly,...And you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem.”
Lumpus, please explain why the launch codes should be in the hands of such a complete and utter moron. Thanks in advance.
Screen doors and submarines, anyone?
Ah, that such may yet lead the Free World™: the ride's all getting a bit much and I'd like to stop the planet and get off now, please.
I'm surprised the Romney's taxes are so consistent. When your taxes are based on investments, you pick and choose which to sell and try to sell some losers to offset the gains. It seems really unlikely that Romney's investments gain at some moderate consistent rate unless they are dominated by bonds and fixed interest instruments. On the other hand, I guess that maybe he needs about 15-20 million per year to fund his expenses and selling about that much might minimize taxes on the average
@BillD
I see J Bowers and Brian are dumb as ever. meh.
Palast has a disturbing piece on voter ID in view of November. Did the Founding Fathers really shoot Karl Rove's great-great-great-grandfather's dog?
Bad Habits: Nuns Nixed over No Voter-ID
Post a Comment