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Is this what Romney is hiding in his Taxes???

tessaesque said:
Unless either one of them broke the law, neither of them matter more than crap in a pig pen.
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I believe tax-invasion, counts as breaking the law, but I can be wrong. Has he committed tax-invasion? Maybe, we won't know until he releases his taxes.
 
Darrell said:
May you rephrase your statement, it didn't make any sense. Obama, went to college, do you think if he didn't go to Harvard, somebody from Harvard would have came out and said, he didn't? Why should he release his academic records, just so conservatives can say it's fake. O, he did release his birth certificate, when eveybody was screaming, he was from Kenya, but it was obviously a fake, because a sheriff in Arizonia says, "it's fake." Taxes and academic records, which one is more important. Get a better argument next time.
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In reality neither of them is that important.
 
I can't believe I'm coming to Romney's defense yet again but.....

Do any of you not take advantage of tax law to LEGALLY minimize your taxes? Since I'm running for President should I call my CPA and say "don't take my lawful deductions"?

This is just ridiculous.

SPECKLEBANG FOR PRESIDENT
"He doesn't take his deductions so he must be a good guy"

CONSagainROMNEY said:
Romney Persona Non Grata in Italy for Bain

"Bain funneled profits through subsidiaries in Luxembourg, a common corporate strategy for avoiding income taxes in other European countries..."

"In Italy, the deals have spurred at least three books, separate legal and regulatory probes and newspaper columns alleging investors made a fortune at the expense of Italian taxpayers."

Looks like Bain screwed over Italy big time. I think Romney just lost the Italian-American vote...
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Darrell said:
I believe tax-invasion, counts as breaking the law, but I can be wrong. Has he committed tax-invasion? Maybe, we won't know until he releases his taxes.
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what portions of the tax code you you think he violated and if so, why didn't the IRS find it? People who make that much get audited every year.

Do you think Romney does his taxes on his personal computer using turbo tax?
 
TheNextEra said:
Taking advisment from someone who basically sent his company overseas and a corporation that paid no taxes in 2010.
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That's not action with respect to GE. It's consulting with the CEO of one of the largest corporations in the world ... let alone America. GE employs about 140,000 Americans.
 
I think that Reid was irresponsible. As interesting as it is to see a Democrat use the same tactics the Republicans have used for years, I don't think that it's appropriate or in any way good for our Democracy.

That said, Reid is likely litterally correct in that he quoted a source that was most likely litterally incorrect. Which means that Reids implication is false. It's almost impossible that Romney paid ZERO taxes for TEN years.

So why doesn't Romney release his taxes? Better yet, why doesn't McCain come out and say that Reid is wrong? The answer is that while it may not be litterally true that Romney paid zero federal taxes for a decade, it's probably close enough to the truth to make no difference.

What do we know so far? We know that in a year where Romney was already planning on releasing his tax returns he paid under 14%. Furthermore, Romney has $100 Million dollar plus IRA. That's $100 Million plus in income that Romney has paid zero taxes on. I think it's safe to assume that 14% is on the high end of Romney's tax burden since his Bain paycheck is considered Carried Interest and thus taxed at the capital gains rate. Romney's going to be at 13.5%-ish without any sheltering. Adding another $100 Million of tax free income and a few shelters and that rate is going to drop down into the mid to low single digits.

Romney can't release his returns. If he releases tax returns he's going to have to release 2009, in which he likely paid zero taxes due to market losses. It's pretty hard to call Harry Reid a liar by releasing a return in which he paid zero taxes. So he'd have to report enough to balance out a zero year which means 8-10 years of 2-8% rates. So Romney would be saying, Reid is wrong, I only paid zero taxes a few times and a near zero rate for the rest. This is also problematic in that it takes us into the 2000-2004 era where Romney was likely taking a considerable salary from Bain.

When asked if Romney had paid zero taxes, McCain answered that there was nothing disqualifiying in Romney's returns. I take it to mean that they found nothing illegal, but a few embarrasing bits, some no tax years, and possibly a few contradictions.

Remember, much like pro-football coaches, even the dumbest campaign managers know a whole lot more about the situation than the arm chair quarterbacks critiquing them. Romney's campaign knew that this issue is going to follow them until election day. A core group of strategists sat down with Romney, and discussed the issue... Multiple times. They knew that releasing this in the GOP primary would mitigate it's effect. They might have underestimated how bad stonewalling would have hurt them in the general, but they made the decision that the hit from releasing 8-10 years of taxes 6+ months out from an election was worse. And yet they chose not to....
 
clownboy said:
No, none of that would be on his personal tax returns. He's not being asked to release Bain's returns, but his own.
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It would show how much money he made in the shady deal and give clues as to how he is hiding that money. His taxes certainly will be complicated, too complicated maybe.
 
CONSagainROMNEY said:
It would show how much money he made in the shady deal and give clues as to how he is hiding that money. His taxes certainly will be complicated, too complicated maybe.
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Again, no. Doesn't work like that. Bain issues him a W2 form to include his salary plus any bonuses, his interest income is reported as such on another form and his tax accounts use those forms to files his returns. Individual deals made by the company are not included as line items on his PERSONAL returns.

To see who made how much on any particular deal the COMPANY made, you have to take a peek at the company's returns.
 
kmiller1610 said:
Why is what Romney does with his money supposed to be more important than what Obama does with mine (and yours)?
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How Romney spends his money is a reflection of how he will spend ours. We do not have ROmney's full record because he refuses to show us by not releasing his tax records. That in itself shows that Romney has a terrible lack of respect for us. He does not respect the AMerican voter. Hiding his tax returns is disrectful to us. It does not allow us to get a full idea of how he will spend our money becuase it does not give us a full idea of what he has done with HIS money.
 
clownboy said:
Again, no. Doesn't work like that. Bain issues him a W2 form to include his salary plus any bonuses, his interest income is reported as such on another form and his tax accounts use those forms to files his returns. Individual deals made by the company are not included as line items on his PERSONAL returns.

To see who made how much on any particular deal the COMPANY made, you have to take a peek at the company's returns.
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You make my point exactly. We do not KNOW what Romney's taxes reflect. We do not know if ther were any bonuses that he got or stock options or anything else he recieved as part of the deal. If he received any of these things then they would have to show up somewhere in his taxes UNLESS he is hding them.
 
CONSagainROMNEY said:
How Romney spends his money is a reflection of how he will spend ours. We do not have ROmney's full record because he refuses to show us by not releasing his tax records. That in itself shows that Romney has a terrible lack of respect for us. He does not respect the AMerican voter. Hiding his tax returns is disrectful to us. It does not allow us to get a full idea of how he will spend our money becuase it does not give us a full idea of what he has done with HIS money.
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We don't know that about Obama either. Tax returns don't tell the whole story on how an individual spends their money. They simply tell the government how much you took in in total, how much YOU claim is taxable of that total and the paid tax. If the government (the IRS) doesn't think your claim as to how much is taxable is valid, or thinks you have not included all your income, they audit you and verify.
 
CONSagainROMNEY said:
You make my point exactly. We do not KNOW what Romney's taxes reflect. We do not know if ther were any bonuses that he got or stock options or anything else he recieved as part of the deal. If he received any of these things then they would have to show up somewhere in his taxes UNLESS he is hding them.
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Again, you're not paying attention - we won't know from tax returns how much he made on any one particular deal the COMPANY made. Only listed would be aggregate bonuses, aggregate income, aggregate interest.
 
clownboy said:
Again, you're not paying attention - we won't know from tax returns how much he made on any one particular deal the COMPANY made. Only listed would be aggregate bonuses, aggregate income, aggregate interest.
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How do you know what we will and will not know from ROmeny's taxes? DOn't you see this is a trap? You are trying to defend something that Romney refuses to give you any information on. You have NO IDEA what is in ROmney's tax returns, do you? So therefore you cannot say what will or will not be on them. Most likely it is very complicated and complex--certianly more complicated and complex than anything mos AMericans have likely ever seen. And most likely it will connect some dots that ROmney very much does not want the US voter to conect.

But the Bottomline is this: You or anyone else cannot tell me what is in or what is not in Romney's taxes until he releases them. And therefore you have no way of defending him on this issue. TO continue to try and do so makes you look like you desperate. It makes you look like you are grasping for straws. And honestly now. Is Romney really worth making yourself look like a fool over???

And I don't mean this as a personal attack on you - I'm using "you" in the universal sense because I'm just trying to point out how ROmeny is making a fool out of ANYONE who is trying to defend him on this issue, becuase Romney does not respect us enough to give us all the information concerning the business record that he is trying to run on...
 
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specklebang said:
I can't believe I'm coming to Romney's defense yet again but.....

Do any of you not take advantage of tax law to LEGALLY minimize your taxes? Since I'm running for President should I call my CPA and say "don't take my lawful deductions"?

This is just ridiculous.

SPECKLEBANG FOR PRESIDENT
"He doesn't take his deductions so he must be a good guy"
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What dems are hoping for is to frame the tax reform debate. Make a big show here, and if he releases, regardless of who wins the coming elections, repubs won't be able to demand revenue neutral anymore.

Also, it would be a pretty good show, even if the last 10 look just like the one we've seen, to ask Romney at the debates why he deserves more tax breaks while he's already carrying a burden as low as the average income earner in this country (50k).

Really I think they've got enough right now to bury him on his tax policy, but man I hope he releases his returns. How much fun will it be to watch the wealthy squirm. :)

Anyway, I think the whole point of this is bigger than election politics. I think the election was a convenient way for the dems to start framing a tax reform debate.
 
AdamT said:
Apparently this is not illegal....
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Nuff said.

If you have a problem with this, as most folks would, then point the finger where it should go at OUR LAWMAKERS. Funny how our electd Reps make the laws and we curse at folks who take advantage of those laws, yes?
 
Billy the Kid said:
Nuff said.

If you have a problem with this, as most folks would, then point the finger where it should go at OUR LAWMAKERS. Funny how our electd Reps make the laws and we curse at folks who take advantage of those laws, yes?
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The problem is in both places. Everything that is unethical is not illegal. That does not excuse unethical conduct.
 
AdamT said:
The problem is in both places. Everything that is unethical is not illegal. That does not excuse unethical conduct.
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If it's legal, then that's the way the system operates. Why should the rich be any different than everyone else taking from the system SET UP BY OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS? None whatsoever. Goose-gander, IMO.
 
Bobcat said:
So as a smart businessman, he took legal means to maximize the earnings of his shareholders and employees, damn! thats just terrible.:lamo
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Apparently Romney thinks it is pretty bad, bad enough to disqualify him as a candidate. Not releasing his taxes pretty much has the same effect IMO.
 
Billy the Kid said:
If it's legal, then that's the way the system operates. Why should the rich be any different than everyone else taking from the system SET UP BY OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS? None whatsoever. Goose-gander, IMO.
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Umm they should behave differently because they are wealthy already and being greedy is not a good trait for a President? That's a bit different than taking food stamps so your familiy doesn't go hungry.
 
Billy the Kid said:
If it's legal, then that's the way the system operates. Why should the rich be any different than everyone else taking from the system SET UP BY OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS? None whatsoever. Goose-gander, IMO.
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I'm talking about the Republican nominee for President of the United States -- not "the rich". I hold my president to a higher standard than the typical shmoe who is only out for himself.
 
iguanaman said:
Umm they should behave differently because they are wealthy already and being greedy is not a good trait for a President? That's a bit different than taking food stamps so your familiy doesn't go hungry.
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If you don't like the tax code and all it's loopholes, then you know who to blame . . . . . your own elected Rep.
 
AdamT said:
I'm talking about the Republican nominee for President of the United States -- not "the rich". I hold my president to a higher standard than the typical shmoe who is only out for himself.
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with the exception of the current president, right? because you hold him to absolutely no standards.
 
AdamT said:
I'm talking about the Republican nominee for President of the United States -- not "the rich". I hold my president to a higher standard than the typical shmoe who is only out for himself.
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I guess it just the Repubs that have to meet your "high" standard.

I'm stillng voting Romney and I'm in a "swing" state. ;)
 
iguanaman said:
Umm they should behave differently because they are wealthy already and being greedy is not a good trait for a President? That's a bit different than taking food stamps so your familiy doesn't go hungry.
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LOL thats such a lame argument. What do you say about people who take food stamps and don't really need them? Is that greed? Is that unethical?
 
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