I keep clicking on threads like this because I hope the evidence will emerge. But this Daily Kos diary misunderstands or misrepresents the Bloomberg article it cites. The source does not claim Romney paid zero taxes, only that he avoided taxation on sale and reinvestment of a MINORITY of his assets through a charitable remainder trust.

The trust is completely objectionable, but is not the evidence we seek.

it might have been sorted out appropriately and with the evidence that is so desired.

It's too late to matter now. But what stands out is the OBTUSENESS of Mittens to be running for something for a decade and not be prepared to face whatever kinds of questions.

we have plenty of ammo against Romney, we don't need to be spreading distortions

the tax shelter, the loophole closed by Congress, the grandfathering-in of past users of the loophole? Be sure to instruct the other threads as well as this one.

Romney ducked capital gains taxes on money he put in a CRUT (and then stiffed the Mormon charity to boot). The original OCt. 29 story from Bloomberg makes that clear). The Kos poster then blew this up to claim Romney paid no taxes at all -- and that is false.

...Is the proposition that the trust represents all his income.

It's a slimy tax dodge that exploits the provisions in the tax code meant to encourage charitable giving. It is not an outright gift, the charity only receives what's left in the trust after he dies. The article alleges that he's spending it down so fast that what's left will be less than what was required by law. This needs to be exposed.

The payouts from the trust, however, represent a minority of his income.

but there's no way to know for sure because we people have seen all the tax returns we're gonna see.