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.
A spokesperson for the Romney campaign says Romney follows all tax laws and he would pay the same in taxes regardless of where the funds are based.
As the race for the Republican nomination heats up, Mitt Romney is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a shroud of secrecy around the details about his vast personal wealth, including, as ABC News has discovered, his investment in funds located offshore and his ability to pay a lower tax rate.
“His personal finances are a poster child of what’s wrong with the American tax system,” said Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer who is an authority on tax enforcement and offshore banking. 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. It has been Romney’s Republican rivals who have driven the tax issue onto center stage. For weeks, Romney has cited a desire for privacy as his reason for not sharing his tax returns — a gesture of transparency that is now expected from presidential contenders.
“I can tell you we follow the tax laws,” he said recently while on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. “And if there’s an opportunity to save taxes, we like anybody else in this country will follow that opportunity.” 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.
This sounds a lot like the Congress Insider trading example, all perfectly legal, and completely unethical.
Freeloading is not capitalism.
Ha, ha. I’m watching Daily Show from yesterday: “The Mafia’s family business is being destroyed by the Governments enforcement of law under the Rico Statute which is against anti-MF*ing laissez faire F*ing Capitalism. The Mafioso Hit Man Ex-Con being interviewed appears to be totally serious but how was he found? I smell a rat!
this is why mitty boy is having such a hard time getting those tax receipts from his filling cabinet.
He doesn’t have any. Its all in the Island coconut club.
As if NOBODY in the GOP or the media knew anything about Mitt’s dodgy finances until this late in the game? Sure. I suspect that all the GOP’s top selects have significant skeletons in their closet. And it just a matter of time before they reveal them all, in order for Obama to easily trounce they final Republican nominee, in November. And in spite of all his virtues and clean living, it won’t be Ron Paul, if the GOP has they way.
I’ve noticed that the GOP’s main selling point (if not their only one) for any candidate, is that “He’s the best hope of defeating Obama”. That’s it?!! That’s all any of them are good for?! That it’s all just about gettin that black guy out of the White House. With Herman Cain long gone, the GOP can no longer claim it’s not about their unsubtle racism.
Later this week, there will be the President’s State of the Union address on Tv. And following it will be the Republican’s rebuttal. According to the record, this televised rebuttal crap didn’t start until 1966. When the Republicans dare to rebuff Johnson’s speech (apparently not brave enough to do Kennedy’s). And it was sporadic after than until 1982. Then the opposing party had something to say, every years since. Often, prerecorded. So it not really what I’d call a rebuttal. Unless they got advanced copies of the President’s address, to mull over for days. It’s just more political noise. Especially during an election year. To tear down the incumbent candidate. IOWs, negative campaigning, AGAIN!
Frankly I’m sick of a elected representatives that do little more than point out the faults of the opposing party, or it’s President. And offers very little in the way of workable practical solutions to current problems, that they won’t turn around and defeat in Congress, at some later date. Nor are they really expected to. It seems to be enough now, just to bad mouth the opposition. Meanwhile they legislate in earnest and in secret, for the wealthiest interests. THAT, they’ve always got time to do!