What is the real reason Mitt Romney won't release his tax returns?

[Don Vito Corleone]

Your link directly contradicts your contention.

No it doesn't- my mistake.

It doesn't contradict it, but it also doesn't prove it (because it's not true). That site doesn't contain all the tax returns disclosed by those candidates.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

As Romney himself noted when he ran against Ted Kennedy, there are blind trusts and there are blind trusts:

"The blind trust is an age-old ruse, if you will," Romney said. "Which is to say, you can always tell a blind trust what it can and cannot do."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/07/20/157119003/just-how-blind-are-blind-trusts-anyway

That's the wonderful things about Romney. For everything he says by golly you can find another quote from him that literally contradicts it. It's truly amazing.

And it's really sad to see Fern continually defend the indefensible. It's a losing battle being a Conservative these days. Must be tough.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

Does it even matter if he can justify himself legally or technically? "I'm not hiding anything worse than some other guys are!" -- doesn't make a great campaign slogan.

 

[fskimospy]

How would any of this be attributable to "he" (assuming you mean Romney)?

Wouldn't these actions instead be attributable to the attorney/trustee?

I don't feel my question has been adequately answered. I do not see what info is to be gained about Romney by looking at the actions of an unrelated third party. If it's truly a blind trust Romney himself has no knowledge of the trustee's actions.

Fern

We already covered this awhile back. Mitt Romney has already addressed your concern and dismissed it, saying that the person who owns the blind trust sets up the rules for how it is administered.

You're arguing with the past statements of the very guy you're defending.

As for civil liability, while I'm no expert I'm pretty sure that liability is not simply limited to Bain shareholders. (why would it be?) If someone can show that they based their investment decisions off of Romney's false SEC filings, they have a case for damages against him.

 

[blankslate]

I've seen many retired older types who just won't turn over the 'keys' to their adult children who actually run the business(es). They do this so nobody can do a damn thing (like selling it or issuing themselves gobs of stock to gain control) without their permission. Likewise with Romney. He owned 100% and would've been a damn fool to turn over the power of an office like Chairman of the Board, CEO or president to someone else while he were away. He could've returned to MA to find he owns nothing. I've seen that stuff happen, and anybody thinking court is a solution is a damned fool.

So you can't say with any real certainty that he wasn't involved at all with the company's direction during the outsourcing years...

Thanks.

*edit*

Since Romney retained those offices it was appropriate to file as such and I've no doubt his absence from Bain during the Olympics was disclosed.

Of course you don't pay no mind to the contradictions that crop up during his campaign for governor.

http://articles.boston.com/2012-07-...epublican-presidential-candidate-steel-mill/2
http://articles.boston.com/2012-07-...epublican-presidential-candidate-steel-mill/3

“When I left my employer in Massachusetts in February of 1999 to accept the Olympic assignment,” Romney testified before the state Ballot Law Commission on June 17, 2002, “I left on the basis of a leave of absence, indicating that I, by virtue of that title, would return at the end of the Olympics to my employment at Bain Capital, but subsequently decided not to do so and entered into a departure agreement with my former partners.”


Romney also testified that “there were a number of social trips and business trips that brought [him] back to Massachusetts, board meetings” while he was running the Olympics. He added that he remained on the boards of several companies, including the Lifelike Co., in which Bain Capital held a stake until 2001.


Romney’s lawyer at the hearing said that Romney’s work in the private sector continued unbroken while he ran the Olympics.


“He succeeded in that three-year period in restoring confidence in the Olympic Games, closing that disastrous deficit and staging one of the most successful Olympic Games ever to occur on US soil,” said Peter L. Ebb from Ropes & Gray.
“Now while all that was going on, very much in the public eye, what happened to his private and public ties to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts? And the answer is they continued unabated just as they had.”


The Romney campaign declined to comment on the record about whether the business trips and board meetings were related to Bain Capital obligations.

And it's really sad to see Fern continually defend the indefensible.

Any CPA who might have done work for a wealthy individual may have had to get used to aggressive use of any loopholes...

 

[Balt]

As I recall, some of Obama's cabinet or advisor picks were drummed out of contention because of some errors on their tax returns, much to the delight of many Republicans.

Just thought I'd mention that. I'm sure our resident Republican board members will be just as scrutinizing with the tax returns of Romney (well except for the fact that they don't even admit he should release them).

 

[Jhhnn]

Romney's blind trust? What a giggle. The director & president of his wife's blind trust is Romney's long time personal lawyer, so any conversations between them are covered by attorney/client confidentiality.

Taxes? figure this into the equation-

(quote)While the Romneys’ spokespeople insist that the couple has paid all the taxes required by law, investments in tax havens such as Bermuda raise many questions, because they are in “jurisdictions where there is virtually no tax and virtually no compliance,” as one Miami-based offshore lawyer put it.(quote)

If I comply with Bermuda law, essentially no law at all in this regard, then make the same report to the IRS, why, I've obviously paid all the taxes required by law, huh?

Well, "you people" will play hell trying to prove any different, which is all that really matters to the Romneys.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/08/investigating-mitt-romney-offshore-accounts

What it all amounts to is that Bain is a bidirectional money laundering & tax avoidance conglomerate- Rich Americans' money goes offshore where the IRS can't find it, and Rich foreigners' money comes to the US, to Delaware corporations & so forth where their own govts can't find it, either. A variety of buffer entities in various tax havens facilitate & obfuscate the money flow.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Do you know if you've ever paid less than a 13.9% tax rate? Mitt Romney doesn't.
http://twitter.com/DavidMuir?tw_i=229572438994853889&tw_p=tweetembed
How about you release your taxes and we help you look Mitt?

 

[K1052]

Seems like a tacit admission that he has. I simply do not believe that a man who used to run a major PE firm and has a wealth into the hundreds of millions doesn't have a clue about what tax rates he's paying.

That's like Willy Wonka saying he has to check his records to see if he ever used sugar in the manufacture of chocolate.