As pundits, political partisans, and amateur CPA’s pore over the numbers, what’s missing from Romney’s report seems most provocative. The full returns for 2010 and 2011 have been released, but only a statement on the overall federal tax rate paid for the previous 20 years.
What’s missing, tax experts say, are the details of Romney’s retirement account from the Bain Capital investment firm he started and ran for years. Much has been made of Romney’s investments in offshore accounts in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Isn’t that a way of avoiding taxes, critics ask?
No, says the Romney campaign in a “frequently asked questions” site about the 2011 return released Friday:
“The investments by the blind trusts in funds established in the Cayman Islands or other jurisdictions are taxed in the very same way they would be if the shares were held in the US rather than through a Cayman fund. No taxes are evaded or reduced. These funds are all registered with the IRS and report all income to investors and the IRS, just like domestic funds. Whether in Bermuda or Boston or elsewhere, there is no difference in how they are taxed.”
Well, maybe.
“The taxes you evade by putting your money in the Caymans aren’t your own personal income taxes, but your offshore investment fund’s corporate income taxes,” writes Timothy Noah in The New Republic. “In other words, the Romneys aren’t evading income taxes by putting their money in the Caymans. The fund they put their money into is evading taxes by parking itself in the Cayman Islands. As a result, that fund (and therefore the Romneys) get to keep more of the profits. Why evade taxes when you can get somebody to do it for you?”
there's more both top and bottom .. ;).. What gets me though is Why should WE believe anything they say? His tax guys .. SCREWED up his returns one time that we know of! .. They didn't take the correct amount he had coming for his charitable donations .. That's a pretty LARGE mistake .. so now I'm supposed to believe the other limited stuff they released?.. un uh ... I don't buy any of it ..
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