Thanks a lot, Mitt: Offshore Tax Havens Cost the Average American Filer Over $400
January 19, 2012
You’ve Probably Heard the News…
ABC News, Jan. 18: ‘Romney Parks Millions in Cayman Islands’
Washington Post (Sargent), 1/18: “Confirmed: More on Romney and his offshoring”
Wall Street Journal, 1/19: ‘Romney IRA’s Offshore Investments: Helping His Tax Bill?’
Just how many millions of reasons does Mitt Romney have in the Cayman Islands to keep refusing to release his tax returns?
There’s one thing we know for sure: the Average American is paying over $400 more a year thanks to offshore tax havens like the ones Romney and Corporations managed by Bain Capital take advantage of…
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/35r3ov/
Mitt Romney thinks he can play by a different set of rules than everyone else. He still refuses to release his tax returns – long a standard disclosure for a presidential candidate, a standard set by his father, George Romney.
Is Romney refusing to release his tax records because he doesn’t want the American people to know how many millions of dollars he has stashed away in a "notorious Caribbean tax haven”? If that’s the case, Romney certainly wouldn’t want to draw attention to the fact that the United States loses approximately $100 billion in tax revenues every year due to millionaires like himself and corporations (like many managed by Bain Capital) sending their money to offshore tax havens. Romney definitely doesn’t want word getting out that the kinds of offshore tax havens he likely takes advantage of end up costing the average America tax filer $434 more a year. Thanks a lot, Mitt.
Is Romney refusing to release his tax records because as someone reported to be worth in the area of a quarter-billion dollars, he doesn’t want to draw anymore attention to the fact that he admittedly pays a lower rate than most middle-class families – despite still raking in untold millions of dollars from Bain Capital’s buyout deals?
Is it because Romney doesn’t want to remind anyone that he made his fortune closing plants, driving companies into bankruptcy, laying off thousands of workers and shipping their jobs overseas during his time at Bain Capital?
Romney’s campaign slogan is “Believe in America.” But if Romney believed in America as much as he claims, he wouldn’t have shipped American jobs overseas or stashed his fortune offshore.
The Washington Post has called Romney’s tax dodges “unacceptable,” and the New York Times has called his lack of transparency “impossible to defend” – and that’s before this tax-haven story even broke…
- Wall Street Journal, 1/19: ‘Romney IRA’s Offshore Investments: Helping His Tax Bill?’: ‘But the campaign’s assertions may be wrong or misleading. Tax experts said some of the offshore holdings are likely intended to help Mr. Romney avoid paying an obscure but hefty tax of as much as 35% on some of those investments, held in a tax-deferred retirement account.’
- ABC News, Jan. 18: ‘Romney Parks Millions in Cayman Islands’: “Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven…On Tuesday, Romney disclosed that he has been paying a far lower percentage in taxes than most Americans, around 15 percent of his annual earnings…[T]ax experts tell ABC News there are other reasons Romney may not want the public viewing his returns. As one of the wealthiest candidates to run for president in recent times, Romney has used a variety of techniques to help minimize the taxes on his estimated $250 million fortune. In addition to paying the lower tax rate on his investment income, Romney has as much as $8 million invested in at least 12 funds listed on a Cayman Islands registry. Another investment, which Romney reports as being worth between $5 million and $25 million, shows up on securities records as having been domiciled in the Caymans.”
- Washington Post (Sargent), 1/18: “Confirmed: More on Romney and his offshoring”: “One wonders if these revelations — combined with the layoffs at Bain; Romney’s tax rate; the fact that his tax plan would give the very wealthy enormous tax cuts while raising taxes marginally on lower income people; and his penchant for saying things that perfectly feed the “one percent” storyline — will generate any concerns among Romney’s top backers about his electability.”