Can we trust him anymore than Madoff and the other vampires? Where the Money Lives For all Mitt Romney’s touting of his business record, when it comes to his own money the Republican nominee is remarkably shy about disclosing numbers and investments. Nicholas Shaxson delves into the murky world of offshore finance, revealing loopholes that allow the very wealthy to skirt tax laws, and investigating just how much of Romney’s fortune (with $30 million in Bain Capital funds in the Cayman Islands alone?) looks pretty strange for a presidential candidate. By Nicholas Shaxson full article at the link, excerpts follow: A person who worked for Mitt Romney at the consulting firm Bain and Co. in 1977 remembers him with mixed feelings. “Mitt was … a really wonderful boss,” the former employee says. “He was nice, he was fair, he was logical, he said what he wanted … he was really encouraging.” But Bain and Co., the person recalls, pushed employees to find out secret revenue and sales data on its clients’ competitors. Romney, the person says, suggested “falsifying” who they were to get such information, by pretending to be a graduate student working on a proj*ect at Harvard. (The person, in fact, was a Harvard student, at Bain for the summer, but not working on any such proj*ects.) “Mitt said to me something like ‘We won’t ask you to lie. I am not going to tell you to do this, but [it is] a really good way to get the information.’ … I would not have had anything in my analysis if I had not pretended. “It was a strange atmosphere. It did leave a bad taste in your mouth,” the former employee recalls. ... Bain Capital is the heart of Romney’s fortune: it was the financial engine that created it. The mantra of his campaign is that he was a businessman who created tens of thousands of jobs, and Bain certainly did bring useful operational skills to many companies it bought. But his critics point to several cases where Bain bought companies, loaded them with debt, and paid itself extravagant fees, thereby bankrupting the companies and destroying tens of thousands of jobs. ... Romney’s personal tax rate is a particular point of interest. In 2010 and 2011, Mitt and Ann paid $6.2 million in federal tax on $42.5 million in income, for an average tax rate just shy of 15 percent, substantially less than what most middle-income Americans pay. Romney manages this low rate because he takes his payments from Bain Capital as investment income, which is taxed at a maximum 15 percent, instead of the 35 percent he would pay on “ordinary” income, such as salaries and wages. Many tax experts argue that the form of remuneration he receives, known as carried interest, is really just a fee charged by investment managers, so it should instead be taxed at the 35 percent rate. Lee Sheppard, a contributing editor at the trade publication Tax Notes, whose often controversial articles are read widely by tax professionals, is nonplussed that the Obama campaign has been so listless on the issue of carried interest. “Romney is the poster boy, the best argument, for taxing this profit share as ordinary income,” says Sheppard. ... 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? ... Bain Capital has said it did everything required by the U.S. government to check that the investors were not associated with unsavory interests. U.S. law doesn’t require Bain to enforce the tax laws of its investors’ home countries, but the presence of Swiss trustees, Bahamas trusts, and Panama corporations would raise red flags with any tax authority. Many Americans might react with a shrug to the idea of shady foreign money such as Robert Maxwell’s being invested here. But, says Rebecca Wilkins, of the Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit Citizens for Tax Justice, “It is shocking that a presidential candidate should think that is O.K.”
Romney uses offshore tax havens and other devices...aliens and the government are not spreading chemtrails... not sure if I can detect the parallel here?
Yep, Vanity Fair has a pretty long record of putting out crazy conspiracy stories. However, you have missed the fact that I purposely mimic the posting styles of basso and higcrop. You know, post an inflammatory article without comment?
Where's the tax returns? “How long can Romney keep information on his investments overseas secret?” <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sLBgCIsMkwU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This weeks shiny object. By all means just don't look at the economy. There is not one piece of evidence suggesting Romney has broken any tax law. None at all.
We don't know that We do know that Rmoney loves America so much he's invested/stashed his money in foreign accounts.
Romney invests in other countries. Obama committed financial aid fraud. (This is all speculation, since we're going rabbit hunting)
A better question is if Romney loves America so much why not trust American banks to hold his money? What is he hiding with all of these offshore accounts?
We don't know whether Obama slept with a goat while in the Philippines. We have no evidence, but we must be brave enough to ask these questions. so you are of the opinion that if you really love this country you must use our banks? I could care less where somebody puts their money. To each his own. That's American.
