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News Release Archive | Mitt Romney | Accuracy.Org

Romney “Tax Issues Cheat Sheet” Released

August 15, 2012


LEE SHEPPARD, via Wendy Harris, Wendy_Harris at tax.org
Available for a limited number of interviews, Sheppard is a contributing editor at Tax Analysts, an influential provider of tax news and analysis. She just published Your Mitt Romney Tax Issues Cheat Sheet.

Sheppard said: “It is often said that the rich get rich and stay rich by watching every penny. Romney certainly fits that description. He looks for every tax angle, to a degree that is unbecoming in someone who would be the executive in command of the administrative apparatus that enforces the tax law.

“Romney is on record as saying that Americans wouldn’t want a candidate who overpaid his taxes — implying that anyone who does is a fool. But a wee bit more patriotism in the form of willingness to contribute to the commonwealth of a country that enabled him to get rich might be in order. He doesn’t realize that an elected official is not a private citizen anymore.”

Sheppard examines each of the major issues around Romney’s tax returns, including:

* Private equity. Issue: Cayman residence of funds.

“The places where some of Bain Capital’s numerous private equity funds are organized — Bermuda and the Cayman Islands — are tax havens. The widespread use of tax and banking havens by large U.S. multinationals and investment funds as an escape hatch from U.S. tax, banking, and securities laws, while offensive, is tolerated and even encouraged by U.S. law and administrative practice…”

* Profits interests. Issue: Zero valuation of profits interests on receipt and partner treatment thereafter.

“Managers of hedge funds, private equity funds, and other investment funds do not get regular salaries. They get part of the profits from the funds they manage, which are organized as partnerships. Their slice of the profits is called a profits interest (sometimes called carried interest). It is not taxed as wages.”

* IRAs. Issue: Can profits interests or special classes of shares in private equity target companies be contributed to IRAs?

“Romney has a gigantic IRA, which may hold as much as $100 million in assets. We do not know what it contains. We can only speculate. Given the applicable contribution limits, it is hard to see how the IRA got so big, even if Bain deals were hugely profitable. Regardless of what is in the IRA, serious valuation and self-dealing questions are raised…”

* Swiss bank account. Issue: Did Romney report it properly?

“A Romney grantor trust had a $3 million Swiss bank account at UBS that the trustee closed in 2010. Romney’s campaign said that the account was disclosed on foreign bank account reports and that U.S. tax was paid on the interest from it. The trustee closed the account because it no longer served the investment purpose for which it was intended. The account was a bet on the Swissie (The Boston Globe, Jan. 30, 2012).”

Tagged With: Election 2012, Lee Sheppard, Mitt Romney, Romney Tax Issues, Romney Tax Returns,

The Ryan Choice: “A Collective Gasp from Wisconsin”

August 13, 2012


ROBERT KRAIG, robert.kraig at citizenactionwi.org, www.citizenactionwi.org
Kraig is executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. He said today: “Paul Ryan is a smooth politician, but beneath the optimistic rhetoric, genial demeanor, and wonky reputation, the substance of his budget proposals would have devastating consequences for the freedom to have a fair shot at the American dream and establish a secure life for our families.

”Like Mitt Romney, Congressman Ryan claims that his radical budget proposals are needed to reduce the national debt. Under the guise of the discredited trickle down approach to the economy, Ryan’s budget actually slashes federal revenue by $4.6 trillion in order to give massive new tax breaks to the wealthy. Under Ryan’s budget the average millionaire, who already pays $129,000 less in taxes due to the Bush tax cuts, will get an additional tax break of $265,000. To pay for these new tax breaks to the wealthy, Ryan proposes unprecedented cuts such as student loans, school lunches, research and development, investments in infrastructure, and other commitments to giving everyone a fair shot at the American dream.

“To pay for these new tax breaks for the rich, Ryan proposes to turn Medicare into a voucher program that will shift new costs onto seniors while further enriching the health insurance industry, and slash Medicaid in half which will causes 14 to 27 million moderate-income Americans to lose their health care and long term care.

“One example of the Romney-Ryan approach is their proposal to raise the Medicare eligibility age to 67, while also repealing health care reform. Without the guarantee that people with preexisting conditions can purchase insurance at an affordable cost, 66 and 67 year-olds would be at the mercy of health insurance industry. The result would be millions of seniors in their early retirement years forced to go without coverage when they are likely to need it most, greatly increasing their risk of early death or losing all of their hard earned retirement savings to medical bills. This is much too high a price in freedom and security to pay for unnecessary and undeserved tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.”

MATT ROTHSCHILD, mattr at progressive.org, progressive.org
Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine, which is published in Madison, Wisconsin. He said today: “When Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate, there was a collective gasp from Wisconsin.

“The far right of the business class in America seems to like the aw-shucks, basset-eyes, folksy Wisconsin frontman. But President Obama hasn’t been firm on defending Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, so the contrast is not as great as many people are saying.

“Paul Ryan is the boyish face of primitive capitalism. He is a cover for some of the crudest cuts to the safety net and sneakiest money grabs for the wealthiest.”

Video of Ryan backing TARP:

Tagged With: 2012 Elections, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Paul Ryan Budget Proposals, Paul Ryan Vice President Choice,

Laid Off Steelworker in Anti-Romney Ad Doesn’t Want Obama Either

July 17, 2012

Donnie Box was featured in a Priorities USA Action ad outside a shutdown plant: “Romney and Bain Capital shut this place down. They shut down entire livelihoods. They promised us a health care package, they promised to maintain our retirement program, and those are the first two things to disappear. This was a booming place, and (On screen: Mitt Romney and Bain Capital made MILLIONS on the deal. Reuters, 1/6/12) Mitt Romney and Bain Capital turned it into a junkyard, just making money and leaving. They don’t live in this neighborhood. They don’t live in this part of the world.” See:

MIKE ELK, mike at inthesetimes.com, @mikeelk
A reporter for In These Times magazine, Elk just wrote the piece “Laid Off Steelworker in Anti-Romney Ad Says He Is Not Voting for Obama,” which states: “For nearly the past year, the United Steelworkers has been attacking Romney’s record at Bain Capital, citing the experience of their former members who were negatively affected during Romney’s tenure there. The sympathy these laid off Steelworkers generated in the media eventually led to Democrats such as President Barack Obama picking up the attacks, despite the misgiving of major party figures like Bill Clinton.

“The United Steelworkers’ initial accusations regarding the GS Technologies plant closing have proven explosive enough to potentially derail Romney’s presidential bid. Their effectiveness also suggests labor’s new strategy of doing its own political actions separate from the Democratic Party is starting to pay off. …

“Despite appearing in an ad for the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA, denouncing Romney’s role in the GS Technologies plant closing, Box, a lifelong Democrat, says he won’t be voting for the first time since 1971 because he has lost faith in politicians.

“‘I could really care less about Obama,’ says Box. ‘I think Obama is a jerk, a pantywaist, a lightweight, a blowhard. He hasn’t done a goddamn thing that he said he would do. When he had a Democratic Senate and Democratic Congress, he didn’t do a damn thing. He doesn’t have the guts to say what’s on his mind.’

“Box’s refusal to vote for Obama shows the challenges that organized labor faces in convincing its members to vote for Democrats. Many union members like Box feel the party hasn’t pushed hard enough for jobs bills or labor law reform while making sure to pass trade pacts, like the South Korea Free Trade Agreement, which the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers opposed.”

Filed Under: Tagged With: Bain Capital, corporations, elections, Mike Elk, Mitt Romney,

“Bain Actually Loves Dems”

May 29, 2012

DOUG HENWOOD, dhenwood at panix.com
Editor of Left Business Observer and author of the book Wall Street, Henwood just wrote the brief piece “Bain Actually Loves Dems,” which states: “All good Democrats are busily hating on Bain Capital right now. What they’re forgetting is how many Bain-affiliated political contributions have gone to Democrats.

“Plug the words ‘Bain Capital’ into an OpenSecrets.org search and you learn that while Bain people have lovingly contributed to their former CEO’s presidential campaign, almost three-quarters of their contributions to other candidates, 72 percent to be precise, have gone to Democrats. That’s a higher percentage to Dems than the AFL-CIO!”

“And among the top recipients are Dem headliners like Al Franken, Claire McCaskill, John Kerry, Mark Udall, Nancy Pelosi, and Sherrod Brown. They were also major contributors to the Democratic National Committee and the national Democratic party. There are very few Republican candidates on the OpenSecrets list, and no major gifts to the GOP itself.

“So [Newark, N.J., Mayor] Cory Booker’s defense of PE [private equity] against attacks by the Obama campaign has a very materialist explanation: PE titans like Bain have been funding Dems for ages — including Booker himself (e.g., ‘Cory Booker’s Bain Capital money‘). It was just a few years ago that HF [hedge fund] hotshot Paul Tudor Jones held a 500-guest fundraiser for Obama, back when ‘the whole of Greenwich’ (an epicenter of the industry) was behind him (‘Another top hedge fund chief backs Obama‘). Then he hurt their feelings with one intemperate use of the term ‘fatcats.’ But it’s not like Obama is about to expropriate the PE and HF types.”

A recent Bob Fitch memorial lecture by Henwood contains a broader critique of Wall Street and real estate support for many establishment Democrats. (Fitch was author of the book The Assassination of New York, which charged that elites seeking ever greater profits had effectively gutted New York City neighborhoods and productive economic sectors.)

Filed Under: , Tagged With: Bain Capital, corporations, Doug Henwood, economy, elections, Mitt Romney,