This could be explosive: Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven, according to ABC News.
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.
Official documents reviewed by ABC News show that Bain Capital, the private equity partnership Romney once ran, has set up some 138 secretive offshore funds in the Caymans.
A spokesperson for the Romney campaign told ABC News that Romney follows all tax laws and he would pay the same in taxes regardless of where the funds are based. Tax experts agree that Romney remains subject to American taxes.
But they say the offshore accounts have provided him -- and Bain -- with other potential financial benefits, such as higher management fees and greater foreign interest, all at the expense of the U.S. Treasury. Rebecca J. Wilkins, a tax policy expert with Citizens for Tax Justice, said the federal government loses an estimated $100 billion a year because of tax havens.
It may be legal, but is it fair? And shouldn't the American people have the full story?
In 2008, President Obama released six years of tax returns. John McCain released two years.
When Mitt’s father, George Romney, ran for President in 1968, he released 12 years of tax returns, which revealed that he paid a 37 percent effective tax rate.
With all the talk of Romney's 15% tax rate, a tax plan that favors the wealthy and his desire to be able to fire people, we can't help but wonder how electable Romney really is and whether Republicans in South Carolina will take a second look.
Ed will have a full report on this tonight at 8pET on MSNBC!
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He is trying to avoid releasing his tax records until he becomes the republican nominee for president. Then it will be too late to bring in a dark horse candidate.
Any Christian who is thinking about voting for Rpmney should reread Luke 16:14-31 which is the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus or you could say Romney and Lazarus
Just another rich man trying to say he is in touch with the mid to lower class but actually is to busy hiding the truth and talking like he will help the mid to poor class. He will help us alright, right back to working ten times harder the we are now! A person I would never vote for!!!!!
America has been taken to the cleaners and any body who wants to have trust of American people had better anti up and be straight with us. The last thing this nation needs is someone to lie to us again. I look at it this way if it was good enough for his father it should be good enough for the son. Hes wealthy we get that but do not lie to us! Come clean Romney !!!!!!
Feigned shock and awe aside by what right does anyone unwilling to pay into the Government have the ability to run for public office?
Being anti-tax does not justify "avoiding" taxes through such means.
Besides why should republicans be allowed to mislead and lie us into wars they do not help pay for? They instead get richer through profiteering.
How much did he plow into Panama?
Enquiring minds want to know!
Ay Carumba!
You have to check out this links to a website you are not going to believe !!
REPUBLICANS FOR OBAMA !
http://www.republicansforobama.org/node/9845
Romney avoids U.S tax by using Offshore accounts :
By Misty - Posted on 08 January 2012
Is the FBI Going After Bain Capital?
The answer to the headline question is yes. About two weeks ago, the FBI evoked FOIA exemption 7(a) and denied access to all Bain Capital records on the grounds that "there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records; and that release of the information contained in these responsive records could reasonably be expected to interfere with the enforcement proceedings."
Whether or not this "enforcement proceeding" target Bain Capital founder Mitt Romney is unknown.
Source: http://historyanarchy.blogspot.com/2012/01/is-fbi-going-after-bain-capital.html
Here is what our rabid friends miss, in 1968 Mittens dad released 12 years of his taxes he paid an average of 37%, remember 1968 the wealthy's share of taxes according to the IRS was still above the 70% mark and it shows that what the IRS declares what the wealthy pays and what the wealthy actually pay are not the same thing as our rabid little friends keep screaming about using IRS numbers.
That Cayman Islands fiasco has been going on for decades. There is a building with nothing but mailboxes in it that is the headquarters for 14,000 businesses.
There's also one in Zug, Switzerland, that has 29,000.
But what the hell, Robme says corporations are people, so he's a corporation.
This is why Obama wants to run against him. He's the poster boy for every corporate money game that there is.
Exactly Chris.
one wonders how much rent all those corporations i mean people is. water, gas, trash etc...
If these reichwingnuts dig their own graves any deeper they'll have to learn how to speak Chinees.
How can anyone vote for a Presidential Candidate as UNPATRIOTIC as ROMNEY?
Simple. Register as a Republican.
That is right, go right and be wrong.
Blame NASCAR and drinking beer for that Easy, they get used to going in circles.
Hahahahahahaha.
Thing is, NASCAR only goes left.
Must be that rebel attitude.
OMG NASCAR HAS GONE ROUGE!!!!!!!!
Rouge? I think you meant rogue.
LOL
well maybe>>>smiling dam keyboard sadly its just a PEBKAC
Come on folks these are tea bagged republicans they can't tell right from left all they know is on their TV's the cars go right, they can't get it that if they stood with their backs to the TV then the cars would be going left.
Whom~ Usually I agree with you, but you've confused me on this one. You want to rethink the way you phrased that? LOL
Actually, rouge is red, and NASCAR drivers are red staters, so they could be going rouge!
I'm workin' with ya, Pilotshark, I'm workin' with ya!
LOL
handshake thanks
MJB TV reverses what the viewer see's so if right hand people are eating TV makes them look like they are eating left handed. I have a brother who still has problems with telling left from right and TV really messes with his head, the good news is he doesn't vote.
I never knew that.
Whom~Those drivers really do go to the left around that track. Are you saying that's wrong too? I know when you look at people in the stands it's like me standing in front of you, looking at you. If you are right handed and eating a hot dog, it would be straight across from my left hand. This is giving me a headache. I'm going to quit while I'm behind! LOL
There is no doubt Willard Romney needs to feed his ego with being the most powerful man in the world. All the doors will open for Mormon Investors. Things that were never done before would continue at an unprecedented rate. Rich people (the 1%) including the Supreme Court will change our Country to a dictatorship. The Neoclowns continue to work on it.
Something like that MJB, when I was a kid I could tell right from left by an injury to my right leg made it painful to walk on the leg for a couple of weeks then I got all screwed up when I did the same injury that caused the left leg to hurt when walking, my solution was which leg hurt first lol.
When you think of really rich people that have proven they have the good of the 99% at heart, I can only think of Dems. Like the Kennedys, and FDR, but I can't think of any Repubs, but then again, I try not to think about Repubs at all. But really, can anybody name one rich Repub that's seemed to want to help anyone but the rich?
Here we go again. Too many of these tax shelters for people like Romney are legal but not moral. Where is the Christian Right on these moral issues?
Neither Christian nor right.
I can asure you that every Kennedy, Pelosi and any rich Democrat uses every tax loophole known to man! They really care about the 99% because they are willing to spend other people's money. The 1% did not cause the economic collapse, the governmet did !
As a member of the middle class, I get it ! The government can't do a damn thing for me by stealing hard earned money from the 1 %. As far as I'm concerned, the 1 % is already paying too much taxes ! Reagan already prooved the left wrong with Reaganomics. That is why the left has been lying about Reagnomics ever since.
BOL here we go again with the rabid rights stupidity, rich democrats should just ay no to tax cuts. Oh wait thats right Warren Buffet did cut a check to the IRS to pay more then what he owed. Reaganomics failed because Reaganomics can only work when consumers credit buy surpluses, when the credit dries up or the consumer has to live within his/her means the economy comes crashing down as seen in 1984, 1992 and 2008. When the economy crashes businesses cut back on workers because they have more produce then they can get rid of which causes high unemployment which in turn means the government loses tax revenues and the GOP's answer to collecting less taxes why they cut taxes on the wealthy. Yep that solves the deficit problem really well.
To the contrary, the economy did not crash in 1984. In 1984 the economy was still recovering from the Carter years. In 1992 after Bush senior raised taxes, the economy was slowed, but was fully recovered on election day in 1992. The crash in 2008 was due to the community reinvestment act, not Reaganomics. The fact is, from the end of Reagan's first term, through 2000, any and all prosperity was due to Reaganomics. Clinton's tax hikes slowed the growth, but the highest tax rate was still lower then it was when Reagan took office. We were still benefiting from Reaganomics in the '90s.
I will not call you liberals names the way you do to us, but the fact is, Reagnomics prooved that you liberals have always been wrong about what makes an economy work. That is why you are reduced to rewriting history !
Sounds just like John Kerry. He would have his off shore companies sell goods to his US companies at extremely inflated prices to avoid paying the high US rates. Sounds like we need to change the rules or quit crying. Must not be illegal because Mitt nor John are in jail. This does show the liberal double standard though. No body cared when it was the Democratic candidate.
John Kerry. He would have his off shore companies sell goods to his US companies at extremely inflated prices to avoid paying the high US rates.
so can you name the company's he has owned? as you know its his wife that owned or is head of Henitz.
Mr Kerry also tried to park his boat in Rhode Island to avoid taxes until he got caught. Another lefty doing what's legal
Don't any of these guys ever get audited?
(What am I saying....of course not)!
It's no wonder they all look down on all the rest of us as if we are the ants 80 stories below...from their vantage point...we are.
OFFSHORE INVESTMENT is OK. Everyone who are investors does the same thing. In Mitt Romney's case, instead of him hiding or running away from it, he more like spread the intrigue of his financial holdings. I think Mitt is more like fearful of his own family to know how much he's worth, not so much of the citizens of this nation.
Hey Mitt! no sense of you running away from the situation.....meet it head on and dispel the myth.
I am a Democrat.....I can not vote for you, whether you are a good man or not. Just be honest with yourself for once.