Posted by Elizabeth Chan at the DNC on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 1:15 p.m. ET: http://www.democrats.org/news/blog/3973
What we've learned from Romney's taxes—and what we haven't
This morning, Mitt Romney released limited information about his finances, in the form of a 2010 tax return and an estimate for his 2011 tax return. We still don't have the information we need to properly evaluate his investments and any potential conflicts of interests—and we won't, until his campaign decides to release many more years of returns, just like his father did in 1968, just like President Bush did in 2000, and just like President Obama did in 2008.
We know he has them. When Romney was being vetted as a vice presidential candidate by John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, Romney supplied McCain with 23 years' worth of tax returns. So what does it say that Romney thinks the American people are only entitled to two years' worth of information?
Romney's made his leadership in the private sector the central rationale for his campaign. The returns Romney released today don't begin to show just how he made his massive fortune as head of Bain Capital or whether he paid taxes on that money.
So here's what we've learned—and what the American people still deserve to know:
We know that Romney recently divested money from China because it conflicted with his continually changing China positions. We know that Romney closed a Swiss bank account in 2010 for fear of political embarrassment ("I'm running for office, for Pete's sake" seems to be a recurring mantra in the Romney camp). This leaves the door wide open for substantial unresolved issues about other conflicts of interest.
We know that Romney has significant offshore investments, not limited to the aforementioned recently closed Swiss bank account. Romney has investments in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Luxembourg, and Ireland—all of which are notorious tax havens. But the returns Romney released don't shed light on how much he's avoiding in U.S. taxes by keeping money offshore. It's potentially a lot: These tax havens cost American taxpayers about $100 billion annually in lost revenue. Could these offshore investments have allowed Romney to defer paying taxes on his giant Bain income?
We know that Romney opposes the Buffett Rule that says millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share in taxes. Today, it's clear why: Romney pays a lower tax rate than teachers and small-business owners. At a tax rate of 13.9 percent, he even pays less in taxes than the average millionaire. Of course he doesn't want this to change. In fact, as president his plan would cut his already shockingly low tax rate nearly in half.
Two years of tax information is not enough. If Romney is serious about running for the highest office in the land, he must do what his father and decades of presidential candidates have done: release many years of tax returns and be transparent with the American people.
read: http://www.democrats.org/news/blog/3973
Memo: Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns Release Raises More Questions than it Answers
Posted by DNC Press on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 6:25 a.m. ET
Memorandum
From: Brad Woodhouse, Democratic National Committee
To: Interested Parties
Date: January 24, 2012
Re: Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns Release Raises More Questions than it Answers
After flip-flopping several times on whether he would make public his tax returns, Mitt Romney is set this morning to release to reporters his 2010 tax returns and an estimate of his 2011 taxes. This planned release follows weeks of sustained criticism of Romney’s stonewalling on his taxes by the media, other candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, and even top Romney supporters like Chris Christie.
Despite Romney’s capitulation today, his decision to release just two years of returns falls far short of the eight years President Obama released, the almost decade released by President Bush and the 12 years of tax returns that his father, George Romney, released during his run for president. It will do little to put to rest the serious questions that have plagued him about how he made his $200+ million fortune. Even as Romney has made his private-sector experience the central premise of his campaign, he continues to duck key questions about his time at Bain Capital; this partial release of just two years of tax returns will provide little insight into his time there. As Mitt Romney's father said as he handed over 12 years worth of returns, "One year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show." What's worse is that we know he has 23 years of returns ready, having handed them over to Senator McCain when he was vying for the Vice President spot on the 2008 Presidential ticket. If those 23 years are good enough to show John McCain, why isn't Mitt Romney comfortable showing the American people?
Already, Romney’s limited release has drawn criticism. NBC’s Chuck Todd emphasized that Romney’s tax return issue “isn’t fully going away” and that his disclosure falls short of the “President Bush standard” of releasing 10 years of prior returns.
In advance of the Romney campaign’s call today, we wanted to provide you with some key questions that it must answer both about the tax returns it’s about to release and the many more it will keep secret.
Key Questions for Mitt Romney on his Tax Returns:
What is Mitt Romney’s effective tax rate? Is he calculating his tax rate based on his taxable income rather than the correct measure based on adjusted gross income?
How much did Romney make in earned income versus investment income?
How much would Romney personally benefit from his own tax policies?
Romney owns residences in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and California. What state does he claim as his primary residence and where does he pay income taxes?
Does Romney use strategies involving charitable deductions that are unavailable to middle income families?
How much does he avoid paying in taxes due to offshore holdings in the Cayman Islands and other locations? Will he release materials that describe his offshore investments?
Key Questions his 2010/2011 tax returns will not answer:
How much did Romney make, and what tax rate did he pay, from 1984 to 2009, a period when he served as a corporate buyout specialist at Bain Capital and continued to receive a share of the profits from them as part of his non-compete agreement?
How much did Romney make off of specific Bain Capital deals, like the dividends Bain Capital took out that drove KB Toys and Dade Behring into bankruptcy while thousands of workers were laid off?
From mid 2007-2009, Romney did not release any personal financial disclosures or any information about his income sources. Will he reveal how much money he made during this time period and how he made it?
In 2007, Romney said that he would immediately divest himself from holdings in Iran and stem cell research. But we know that he continued to buy and sell these holdings in his charitable trust. Only his 2007 tax returns would provide proof of immediate divestment- will he release them to prove that he kept his word?
How much income does not even show up on Romney’s tax forms in the form of unrealized gains, offsetting capital losses, and use of corporations to shield income?
read: http://www.democrats.org/news/press/3970
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