Mitt Romney's Tax Return Time Bomb

[maddezmom]

Despite the howls from indignant Democrats (and quite a few Republicans), it's starting to seem like Mitt Romney may get away with refusing to release 10 years' worth of back tax returns. A month of pounding on the issue is starting to get old; soon, the vice-presidential nomination and the conventions will change the subject, and the fall campaign will seek new ground on which to engage.

There's just one problem: Romney has promised to release his most recent tax returns before the election.

It's an inconvenient, often-overlooked fact that means that even if the issue fades for the moment, it's guaranteed to reemerge down the line, giving Romney's opponents a whole new batch of ammunition to make the case that he's rich and unscrupulous.

In January, when Romney released 550 pages of tax records, they included both his full 2010 return and an estimate of his 2011 taxes, and he promised to release the full 2011 return once his accountants had completed it. At the tax deadline in April, he filed for an extension, giving him until Oct. 15 to file the full return, which he has said he'll release when it's ready. Campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul confirmed to me that the 2011 returns would be released "as soon as they're ready" and that that would be before the election.

More: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/08/mitt-romneys-tax-return-time-bomb/260993/

[enough]

1. I don't see any evidence that Romney "may get away with refusing to release" the tax returns.

He may "get away" with it in the sense that he will go all the way through the election without releasing them. That does seem likely. But he's going to continue to pay a heavy price for it price for it. I don't see the issue going away.

That said, she has a good point about the 2011 return. They'll probably wait till the very last possible minute, when there's not enough time to really analyze the return.

[roguevalley]

4. me either. remember when the MSM idiots said going after his biz and taxes wouldn't work

Yeah. I don't either.

[woodsprite]

2. I thought even his release of his 2010 taxes wasn't complete. n/t

[SheilaT]

3. I think that delay to Oct 15 is the maximum allowable.

There have been years in which I've filed for an extension, and for me that's always because I'm terribly disorganized and have difficulty gathering all my pieces of paper together in a timely fashion. And even though I always have a professional do my taxes, I do not have accountants working for me year round, as Romney would have. Even though his taxes would be many orders of magnitude more complicated than mine are, and even though I'm sure his accountants don't always have the final numbers in hand by April 15, there's no real reason I would think why it can't all be done by about July 1.

I'd be curious to know if Romney normally asks for an extension to file his returns, or if this recent one was unusual.