at 3 pm today, romney's 2011 tax return will be posted here:
www.mittromney.com/disclosure
top-line details:
summary notes from past 20 years:
www.mittromney.com/disclosure
top-line details:
summary notes from past 20 years:
Romney 2011 Taxes and 20 Year Summary Released
- Thread starter William Haskins
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"Summary"? Prepared by whom, exactly?
Don't forget, the last time Romney told us we'd 'just have to trust him' about his taxes (when he ran for governor of Mass and claimed he'd never listed Utah as his residence), he turned out to be lying.
Don't forget, the last time Romney told us we'd 'just have to trust him' about his taxes (when he ran for governor of Mass and claimed he'd never listed Utah as his residence), he turned out to be lying.
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Heh. 'Pay no attention to the fact this campaign is in complete disarray and has no coherent message. Look! We have tax returns! Well, sort of. Close enough, right?' 
When I clicked on the top link, I got a message saying I wasn't authorized to access the page. It's probably just the browser on my droid, but I prefer to think that the site only allows access to secret far-right conservatives with nefarious pro-Romney agendas.
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One might point out that contributions to one's church, or tithing, count as charitable deductions. The LDS church is quite wealthy, with assets estimated at $40 billion dollars. Helping them out is not quite the same as giving to the local homeless shelter.
Without seeing actual tax returns, any financial claims or averaging can be spun in any number of ways.
For example, does income routed through offshore accounts on which no tax is paid count as "income?"
In other words, if you make twenty million dollars, but using tax avoidance strategies reduces your "taxable income" to five million and then you pay one million in tax, can you legally claim to have paid a tax rate of 20% on your income?
I have no idea. But without the actual returns, this summary is worthless. It's just so much financial legerdemain.
There's a reason Romney won't release the actual returns.
Without seeing actual tax returns, any financial claims or averaging can be spun in any number of ways.
For example, does income routed through offshore accounts on which no tax is paid count as "income?"
In other words, if you make twenty million dollars, but using tax avoidance strategies reduces your "taxable income" to five million and then you pay one million in tax, can you legally claim to have paid a tax rate of 20% on your income?
I have no idea. But without the actual returns, this summary is worthless. It's just so much financial legerdemain.
There's a reason Romney won't release the actual returns.
Perhaps I am misunderstanding (since my phone won't seem to let me on the site), but I gather from William's post that the actual return WILL be posted on the site.
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Amusing factoid:
In July, Romney told ABC News that "frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become president."
Now: Romney's 2011 returns show that he opted not to take some deductions in order to adhere to the 13% floor. If he'd taken all that was available to him, his effective rate would've been around 9%.
In July, Romney told ABC News that "frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become president."
Now: Romney's 2011 returns show that he opted not to take some deductions in order to adhere to the 13% floor. If he'd taken all that was available to him, his effective rate would've been around 9%.
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For 2011. He'd already released preliminary estimates of that return
The question has always been about his returns before his current presidential run.
Too little, too late, almost regardless of what the returns show. People still continue to ask why he resisted so stiffly back in the spring, when the issue could have been cleared away easily.
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Well, he already released 2010, right? So that's two years plus summaries for twenty more. Plus State and Federal disclosure from a number of different years. That's a lot of info. But it's all worthless, is it?
And there's never been any "question," per se. Just a fishing expedition looking for goodies.
And there's never been any "question," per se. Just a fishing expedition looking for goodies.
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Diversionary tactic. His recent "47% video" is bad news for him so he's likely releasing the returns now to divert attention away and so that Obama can't use it against him in the debates.
Also, given that he's releasing this info late on a Friday (taking it out with the trash), he's trying to avoid the regular work week news cycle, hoping that this will be old news by Monday.
All true. The question remains: Why didn't he release these things when being pressed about them months ago? He resisted explaining that resistance as strongly as he resisted in the first place. If he had, and if they show nothing damaging, there would have been no "fishing expedition". I put it down to Romney's sense of entitlement, which I mentioned earlier in this thread, and which seems to amount to a form of "aristocratic privilege" in his mind.
It ain't working.
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Methinks the 20 year summary is to use some big tax payments for transactions, estate etc to cover some years where they paid little tax. I can practically see it spinning.
Or, realizing that folks in the opposing camp were making all kinds of assumptions about his tax returns, he decided it would be a better strategy to wait to release them. I probably wouldn't have thought much about his returns if there hadn't been so much fuss about them. I suspect most people wouldn't. But now people are more likely to notice the percentage he gives to charity, etc.
That's politics.
That's politics.
Romney could release every tax return he's ever had along with notarized polygraph results from a public grill-session regarding said tax returns, and endoscopic photographs of his colon... and people would still say he's hiding something. Same way if Obama produced a video of his birth in which he was shown being delivered by wahine midwives wearing coconut bras and grass skirts with Mount Kīlauea erupting in the background, people would still say he was born in Kenya. There's nothing either of them can do at this point to change anybody's opinions.
Politicians should just have, like, a Miss America type pageant where they twirl batons and sing ABBA songs and see who looks best in their evening wear, and talk about how they all want world peace and crap. That's all it is anyway. I mean, legal citizenship/eligibility issues and spray tans and charisma scores and sex scandals and views on puppydogs & gay marriage and Donald Trump sticking his big puffy face up every five minutes... bah. I'm so over this election. I'm moving to Canada, where things make sense.
Politicians should just have, like, a Miss America type pageant where they twirl batons and sing ABBA songs and see who looks best in their evening wear, and talk about how they all want world peace and crap. That's all it is anyway. I mean, legal citizenship/eligibility issues and spray tans and charisma scores and sex scandals and views on puppydogs & gay marriage and Donald Trump sticking his big puffy face up every five minutes... bah. I'm so over this election. I'm moving to Canada, where things make sense.
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Except, let me remind you, he did not release them. He released a summery that contained only the information he wanted out there.
I don't think so. The political fallout from refusing to release the returns was bad enough so that the only plausible explanation is that actually releasing them would be worse.blacbird said:
As many others have said he may have been involved in "aggressive tax planning strategies that are legally, but not politically, defensible."
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I think this is where my brain gets kinda stuck:
How can anyone in this position (not just Romney; it goes for a lot of politicians) even begin to understand what it's like for someone who was raised in poverty, who works two jobs just to feed their kids macaroni and cheese, who has to choose between aspirin and bus fare?
Assuming an average interest/dividend payment rate of 5%, that means they have nearly three hundred million dollars just sitting around making interest/dividends for them to spend. Without anyone having to lift a finger.
How can anyone in this position (not just Romney; it goes for a lot of politicians) even begin to understand what it's like for someone who was raised in poverty, who works two jobs just to feed their kids macaroni and cheese, who has to choose between aspirin and bus fare?