Romney Paid 13.9% ("Romney advisers stressed that the holdings in the Caymans")

[ProSense]

Romney Paid 13.9%

Josh Marshall

We’ve got the first report about Romney’s 2010 taxes. His effective tax rate was 13.9%, just below the 15% he estimated last week. Here are the initial details.

Key passage from Reuters story …

Romney advisers stressed that the holdings in the Caymans — along with those in a Swiss bank account that was closed in 2010 after an investment adviser decided it could be politically embarrassing to Romney — were reported on tax returns and were not vehicles to avoid taxes.

My quick take on this is that there’s a lot here that’s fairly damaging for Romney in political terms, largely for the reasons I set forth earlier in this post. Beyond that there’s a lesson about the consequences of losing control of events. For a man running for president in 2012 it’s damaging stuff. But now everything in these documents comes with a preface that reads “We really wanted to keep this secret. But that didn’t work out.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/01/romney_paid_139.php?ref=fpblg

Time for Romney to release the returns going back at least eight years.

[Scuba]

1. I want to see 2000, '01, '02, '03, '04, '05, '06, '07, '08 and '09 too.

Twelve years, like Daddy.

[denverbill]

2. No shit. Considering he closed his Swiss bank account that year.

Did he report that income in previous years?

[tallahasseedem]

9. Same here...

I am definitely not satisfied with two. I want to see it during his time at Bain as well.

[The Genealogist]

11. I want to see this too

I am not holding my breath. Look what it took to get just these 2. Pressure needs to be kept up on Romney to release his returns back to 2000.

[uponit7771]

3. Romney STILL got rich while companies Bain ran failed. That's what's REALLY hurtful about Romney

...and what we're going through right now.

[Scuba]

4. He took profits by bleeding the pension funds, then sticking the taxpayer with making it up.

[dynasaw]

5. What he learned to do

in business school no doubt. What I've hated about MBA programs have done in the last decade.

[closeupready]

6. Sorry, but if it looks, walks and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.

You don't have Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts for anything other than to avoid keeping assets where tax authorities can get their hands on it.

He's a freeloader.

[intheozone]

7. Hey media guys, please ask Romney if he and wife

participated in either of the IRS's recent Voluntary Offshore Disclosure programs. If they did, they would have had to amend years 2003 through 2009 to reflect the income from any foreign accounts that was unreported on the original returns. The advisers say the accounts were reported on tax returns, does that mean the original returns or amended returns?????

Inquirying minds want to know!

[ProSense]

8. How

will the media treat Mitt? They should be demanding the release of his previous tax returns.

[Scurrilous]

10. K & R