Romney is still hiding his tax history (Part IV)
As I noted in several prior posts about the reasons that multiple years of the Romneys' tax returns are essential to evaluating Romney as a presidential candidate, the fact that Romney has adamantly refused to release returns other than the 2010 actual return (and the 2011 estimated return) is a cause for concern. Since the established norm is that presidential candidates release 8-12 years of returns, Romney's insistence on not disclosing other returns appears arrogant and disrespectful of voters and suggests that there may be one or more items in those returns that he doesn't want voters to know about. The prior posts included some information about items that could be better assessed with more returns and related information to review, including among others: passive activity losses, questions of whether certain items are hobbies or can legitimately be classed as business expenses, foreign bank accounts, tax shelters, offshore companies, income from Bain Capital, and effective tax rate. Much speculation has centered on the fact that Romney has accounts in various tax haven jurisdictions (Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Singapore) as well as bank accounts in jurisdictions that have been noted for banking secrecy and the accompanying tax evasion possibilities.
Since the US began cracking down on Swiss bank account holders who had avoided their reporting responsibilities, this latter issue has gained considerable visibility. It turns out that many Americans had multi-million dollar accounts abroad that weren't reported and on which they weren't paying taxes. With the breakthroughs facilitated by whistleblowers that threatened an avalanche of information about other bankers, other accounts and other accountholders, many of those lawbreakers came forward to participate in voluntary disclosure programs through which most could pay a penalty and a settled amount for taxes and avoid criminal prosecution. So US taxpayers (and voters) want to know--did the Romneys participate in that disclosure program.
As I noted in several prior posts about the reasons that multiple years of the Romneys' tax returns are essential to evaluating Romney as a presidential candidate, the fact that Romney has adamantly refused to release returns other than the 2010 actual return (and the 2011 estimated return) is a cause for concern. Since the established norm is that presidential candidates release 8-12 years of returns, Romney's insistence on not disclosing other returns appears arrogant and disrespectful of voters and suggests that there may be one or more items in those returns that he doesn't want voters to know about. The prior posts included some information about items that could be better assessed with more returns and related information to review, including among others: passive activity losses, questions of whether certain items are hobbies or can legitimately be classed as business expenses, foreign bank accounts, tax shelters, offshore companies, income from Bain Capital, and effective tax rate. Much speculation has centered on the fact that Romney has accounts in various tax haven jurisdictions (Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Singapore) as well as bank accounts in jurisdictions that have been noted for banking secrecy and the accompanying tax evasion possibilities.
Since the US began cracking down on Swiss bank account holders who had avoided their reporting responsibilities, this latter issue has gained considerable visibility. It turns out that many Americans had multi-million dollar accounts abroad that weren't reported and on which they weren't paying taxes. With the breakthroughs facilitated by whistleblowers that threatened an avalanche of information about other bankers, other accounts and other accountholders, many of those lawbreakers came forward to participate in voluntary disclosure programs through which most could pay a penalty and a settled amount for taxes and avoid criminal prosecution. So US taxpayers (and voters) want to know--did the Romneys participate in that disclosure program.
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