Mitt Romney released his 2010 tax returns, and says he'll eventually disclose his 2011, at which point we're simply out of luck. At least for now, he refuses to even consider making additional information available.
George Will said over the weekend, "The cost of not releasing the returns are clear. Therefore, [Romney] must have calculated that there are higher costs in releasing them." That's true, but it's also obvious -- of course he knows he's taking a hit, so he clearly believes this embarrassment is less severe than the embarrassment that would come with disclosure.
The next question, then, is why Romney refuses to do what even his allies have urged him to do. There are competing explanations, and CNN's Erin Burnett noted some of them in a segment last night, concluding with the possibility that the Republican presidential candidate might be, as she put it, "stupid."
Clearly, answering the question is speculative for those of us outside Romney's inner circle, but I think there are probably five main possibilities to explain this strange secrecy.
1. Romney may not have paid any taxes. As Kevin Drum suggested yesterday, "[T]here are probably multiple years in which Romney paid no taxes at all. This would very definitively be a Bad Thing, so he really doesn't have any choice but to take the heat instead." This would also apply if he paid almost nothing in taxes, thanks to various tax-avoidance schemes.
2. Romney may have made even more money from Bain. Before his "retroactive" retirement, Romney made "more than $100,000" a year from his firm for, according to him, doing absolutely no work whatsoever. But as Michael Tomasky noted, we don't know how much more than $100,000 he made in compensation. If it's significantly more, that could be awfully embarrassing.
3. Romney may have had to pay fines. If he tried to skirt American tax laws in the past and got caught, the returns might show penalties, fines, and/or back tax payments.
4. Romney may have additional offshore investments. We know about the shell corporation in Bermuda, the cash in the Caymans, and the Swiss bank account because of the one year's worth of returns. If Romney considered himself an International Man of Mystery for a long while, there may be other foreign holdings he'd prefer to conceal.
5. Romney may have taken some problematic deductions. Did he give money to controversial charities? Did he take deductions on his family's fancy horses? Something else?
Of course, it's worth noting that these aren't mutually exclusive -- the returns, if we ever see them, may include some combination of these concerns, or perhaps even all of them.
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if willard, the multi, multi, millionaire paid no taxes and thought he could get himself elected president, then i'd say the proposition that he is stupid looks irrefutable.
Actually, he is stupid because he is too up in his head like Kerry. He doesn't understand what Rove and Axelrod understand- that first impressions stick.
Why this is so is starting to be understood by neuroscientists, and the picture is still very murky but it is fascinating if you are a bit of a science dork. What is known is that this works at a very low level. Interestingly, you know which areas of the brain light up when a person experiences moral disgust? (source Damasio, Self Comes to Mind: Kindle Locations 1889-1891)
Omnivores must develop strong senses of smell in order to detect sources of pathogens (eg feces and rotting flesh), and to motivate the animal to avoid potentially toxic foods. We are political omnivores, and in detecting a new entity (eg. Romney), the strategy is to excite the "something seems fishy about this guy" response. The reason why this works especially well with conservatives is that they tend to be neophobic (fear new things), while liberals score higher on tests for neophilia (opennes to new things). There is survival value in both. Omnivores don't starve because they will try new food sources. But when doing so, they will place great reliance on their sense of smell to protect them from unseen threats.
Romney has a lot hidden to him, and undecided voters are looking to see what alternate food sources there are to Obama. Under these conditions, that animal mind is activating its cognitive centers of dedicated to smell in order to sense whether he poses a better source of food or whether he stinks- representing an unseen threat to them- like a hidden pathogen.
Even George Will is saying Romney's behavior with his tax returns doesn't smell right.
.
That Romney campaign did not anticipate this is truly baffling. Karen Finney called it malpractice on Last Word last night, and she's right.
Romney may be refusing to release his tax returns for a reason no one has mentioned: He has been fudging his donations to the Mormon Church and not really being giving a true 10% as he says he does. If he plays with the word "income", he could still give a lot of money, but much less that 10% of his actual income each year(except the last few years when he knew he was going to run for President). He could be outed to his church and the American people.....he would be punished by his church and seen as a real sleaze by America.
It is almost humorous that the Olympics are being held. Many people and the athlete's will get a real up close and personal experience with the effects of these rich people industrializing and how they looked to protect the environment. I am sure the city where the Olympics will be held will be a picture perfect place of health. Just don't breathe too often you might get too dizzy from all the fresh air. Just don't eat anything too foreign, since you might get to enjoy too much of that healthy food. Just don't touch too much of the things around you, you might get to enjoy too much of that healthy clean dirt around you. Don't drink too much of the water, since you might drink in too much of that clean spring fed water. But if you go back home feeling kind of sick, don't worry all those rich people who industrialized made sure it was picture perfect clean for you and guaranteed it. And if anybody dies from going there, just don't blame those politicians and rich people that pushed that whole idea of industrializing, because they will just deny it was their fault.
Which would be humorous except they were already held in China .
This year it's London
Not to be snarky , but are you a low information voter?
All of these 5 reasons could be why Romney doesn't want to release anymore income tax returns. Wouldn't be surprised if it was all 5 reasons.
Thanks sick-n-effin-tired, never was that much into sports, but comments still applicable so I corrected it.
I know London's not the best city in the world, but it's not THAT bad!
Actually London is a wonderful city with lots to do and pretty friendly if reserved people - I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Sorry Deb, your comment did deserve that comment from sick-n-effin.....
Deb, maybe you meant the 2014 youth Olympics. They are in China.
Personally, I do not care what Olympics it really is. When I have more concern over what is and can really effect people health wise. To me there is a much important issue than some sports game and that is the overall health of our planet. And how all these things we do to this planet does very much impact our daily lives and very health. You can run around and exercise all you want, but if it is the very industrial activities that we do that are going to really affect our health and lives, what good will all that exercise or sports do? When all the other things we are doing is going to kill you.
DckaJ . . . The 2014 Winter Olympics are in Sochi, Russia. The summer games were held in Beijing, China in 2008.
Russia is even worse when it comes to the damage done to the environment. When the Berlin Wall came down, the amount of pollution and damage to the environment was found to be devastating. In order to fix what was the Communist side of Germany, they found that in order to fix the environment they would of had to remove 2 feet of top soil in an attempt to just to clean it up. Of course, that never happened thus the people there still have to live in those conditions. And there is many areas still in very bad conditions as the result of Communist Russia and the lack of proper regulations.
Via Fallows, what of the theory that this is an Obama-like ploy (e.g. birth certificate) where he releases them upon duress and nothings's there? Is this very unlikely?
Romney is neither that smart nor that bold.
That's the thing, isn't it? He's not.
Hillary ran exactly this scam with her tax returns during the 2008 primary, letting the opposition (me included) work themselves up in to frenzy of ever more frenzied speculation and then when she finally released them . . . they showed exactly what you would expect the tax returns of two of the most astute political minds in American history would show if they started making some real money. Deductions that could have been taken that weren't, considerable donations to charity, all straight down the middle. Much egg was applied to many faces, which caused some of the egg wearers to indulge in even more childish assaults on their charitable contributions which were, in fact, substantial, if not exactly reaching "sell everything that you own and follow me" levels of philanthropy.
Mitt, however, is not one of the most astute political minds in American history.
Yeah, maybe, just maybe, he took his Dad's admonition that a rich guy can make a single year's return show anything he wants to the most cynical extreme and started prettying up his returns the day he decided to run for president in 2006. But if he did, what we saw on his "I'm Running for Office, for Pete's Sake" 2010 return indicates that he has some very odd notions of what it means to "pretty up" returns.
Once your wealth hits nine digits, and you hire a brirgade of highly paid tax planners and tax lawyers, the natural inertial tendency is for your returns to zoom straight into the dodgy grey areas. The place where you "take a position" as they call it in the tax law world, knowing it is more likely than not that it'll eventually be disallowed, but have a sufficiently good faith basis for taking the position that you'll avoid penalties for intentional wrong doing and criminal liability. Your return goes into these grey areas because all those highly paid experts have to save you more than you pay them or you'll fire them and mostly, one percenters just don't have the same relationship with the law that the rest of us do--they're very comfortable in the gray areas.
I'll be stunned if Romney's returns aren't filled with such "positions." The stuff we saw on his "I'm Running for Office for Pete's Sake" returns--the offshore tax haven accounts-- are like the empty chrysalis of a nasty bug hanging on a branch: it may be empty now, but you know something ugly pupated in in at some point or it wouldn't be there.
If the IRS disallowed any of his past positions and leveled penalties on the grounds that they were not taken in good faith, Romney's toast. Campaign over. No matter that in Onepercentland, getting hit with those penalties once in a while is just a cost of doing business that one can brag about (under guise of complaining) with one's peers, to the 99% he's a "tax cheat" without anyone having to explain it to them.
If the IRS disallowed deductions and didn't levy penalties, then he's going to be spending the rest of his campaign struggling like a fly in amber to explain why he's not a tax cheat. And the more he struggles the more stuck he'll get.
And, even if the IRS was too busy investigating abuse of the earned income credit by poor people to scrutinize Mitt's returns and he got away with his positions unscathed, there will certainly be plenty of talking head experts on the cable shows opining that his positions look very aggressive and saved him more in taxes than you, and everyone you know, earn in a year combined.
It's the positions. It's got to be the positions. The only way we'll know it isn't is if he releases the returns, because if he doesn't it means its all about the positions.
I think the reason Obama didn't release his birth certificate before is because he didn't effin' have to. It was offensive and one of those things, when you first hear it, doesn't deserve a response. When it only began to muddy the waters and distract from real things that Obama decided that he needed to release it, just to shut the birthers up, and until now, I personally will remember Trump as the guy who made my President show his birth certificate. I will go to my grave hating Donald Trump for being a complete douchebag.
The difference between the birth certificate and tax returns is that the tax returns are inextricably tied to Romney's supposed claim to Presidential Credibility, which is Bain, so it is immensely relevant to his presidential campaign. That Bain and his tax returns are being used against him, Bain being the thing that Romney is most proud of, should have warranted an immediate show of legitimate tax returns and documentation.
Obama was not hiding anything and I don't think the "show birth certificate later" strategy was a strategy. Just something he had to do. This is something Mitt has to do--show his tax returns. That he isn't showing it probably means there would be more hell to pay if he did.
Trump, today, called for the release of all of Obama's college applications and transcripts. He was very clear:
"For the sake of transparency, Barack Obama should release all his college applications and transcripts--both from Occidental and Columbia." His twitter feed is one hot mess of craziness directed at the president. I've never seen anything like it.
Rickety Romney
He Changes His Mind,
Rackety Romney
His Wealth we can't Find
Your Job's Overseas
Along with his Gold.
Don't trust a False Profit,
On that I am Sold!
I think there is something there from the time that he
didn’t have any plan to run for presidency, which may be damaging to him right
now. That is why; he doesn’t want to release it. It may bring him down 10
points in the polls. He is just down almost 2 point on recent polls with all
these controversies http://www.pollheadlines.com/poll-category.php?category=obama-vs-romney
He thinks he can hold on it and even recover if he just not release the tax returns.
Being down 2 points is much better than 10 points.
Hey, everybody's forgetting one possibility; Rmoney is crazy like a fox and will release all of his tax returns since paying on stocks his parents gave to him to get through school. And they will show nothing remarkable, nothing untoward -- in fact, they will show Mitty paid 70% top marginal rates on income over $50,000. Then Rmoney will get to cry wolf on every other thing the Dems are throwing at him; all charges against him will be diminished in the public's eyes and he will be swept to victory on the sympathies of an outraged Wingnut Upwelling of disgust at the Socialist, capitalist-hating Obama and his evil forces.
Or something like that.
Willard and The LDS love M.O.N.E.Y. too much too ever part with the top marginal rate.
He has always had money and has spent his whole life figuring out ways to get even more money , without actually working .
This is a guy that bought all the hard drives out of the staff computers when he left Mass.
Why , except there were shady dealings he needed to hide , destroying the trail.
He is a duplicitous lying sack aof ShMitt.
C'mon, play along. Just giving the wingnut trolls a bone to play with. They'll eat anything and get it caught in their throat.
It does make you wonder, though. Could Romney really not have known this would be made an issue? It's difficult to believe he's THAT clueless. And if there's nothing in them, it could backfire on Obama. I'm sure Obama's folks have calculated how to handle that situation. They could just say "Great. He released them. He should have done that in the first place because the public has every right to know."
Or something like that.
AKA - exactly what the Republicans did when Obama released his Birth Certificate...
On Topic: #1 definitely, possibly some of #4 and #5... #3 is a little far-fetched, and #2 is really a non-issue (golden parachutes and all)...
Now that is some fine sarcasm, internet-style.
I really love how the wingers are defending Romney: his taxes are nobody's damn business and where are Obama's college transcripts?
That's crossed my mind, too, Beth-in-VA. But, in comparing the two situations, Pres. Obama had already released his birth certificate, and in essence, re-released it again for those who simply couldn't believe their own eyes. The public already knew what it contained.
On the other hand, Romney apparently has been hiding his tax returns from as far back as when he was running for governor. It's amazing that he got elected in MA even with Eric Fehrnstrom, his longtime aide, in talking about how Romney filed, saying stuff like: "...you are just going to have to take my word for it." (Boston.com "Mitt Romney and His Tax Returns, Deja Vu?)
Here's yet another reason I came across at the Washington Post for why Romney may not want to release his returns:
"The Romney tax returns for the years 2008 and 2009, which he has not released or shared with others, would reflect his earnings during the depths of the recent economic crisis."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/romneys-misleading-history-of-tax-returns-issued-by-presidential-contenders/2012/07/16/gJQAChunpW_blog.html
I would be very interested to know if any investments in subprime mortgages show up in his returns - or investments in funds that were shorting the market.
Perhaps you should just as fervently ask Obama to unseal his:
medical records,
school records from Punahou High School, Harvard, Columbia College (including thesis), and Occidental College
passport records,
legislative and scheduling records from the Illinois State Senate, which are missing.
What is Obama hiding?
By that logic, then, ALL presidents should have had to provide that level of information. Obama is the only president conservatives are obsessed with badgering to do so. Hmn, I wonder why.
The only comparison that makes any sense here is that candidate Obama released seven years of tax returns. Romney refuses to release any more than his current two. What is he hiding?
Absolutely Wujek!!!!
Because:
- Obama is running on his picture perfect health and he's clearly a rickety shell unable to keep up with the younger, more vital, cheerleader Rmoney,
- clearly Obama intellect is in question despite Laurence Tribe calling him the best he's ever seen, and
- those internation records will expose, just like with Clinton, how Obama lead protests in foreign countries against America, and,
- those Illinois Senate records would tell us just how much of a slacker Obama will be if he were to ever be President because we can't judge that based on only nearly four years of observing him being President.
Used to be you could expect some quality wingnut trolling. Not anymore. (OK, there was never any quality wingnut trolling, but hey, at least it was better.)
Right. In wingnut world, medical and school records are the proper quid pro quo to demand in return for doing what every presidential candidate for decades had done and release several years worth of tax returns.
Umm, no. You know what the quid pro quo for releasing your tax returns is? The other guy releasing his tax returns. Which Obama has already done going back many years.
If Romney wants the public to see Obama's medical records, he should release his own. If he wants to see Obama's school transcripts, he should release his own. If Romney wants to see Obama's passport, he should release his own passport.
Which, of course, is why Romney isn't demanding to see any of those things. Only 101st Chairborne, the "Fightin' Keyboardests," are doing that.
ANOTHER POSSIBLE REASON:
Romney may not have paid a full tithe (10%) to the Mormon Church as required by church law, and he doesn't want the elders in Salt Lake City to find out how many millions short they are. He could be disciplined by the church.
I had thoughts along a similar line, but going in the other direction. What if among other oddities in those documents, Romney gave gargantuan amounts of money to the church? While I personally think he has every right to fork over as much as he wants to the church, it wouldn't play very well with a lot of voters, particularly those who think the LDS is a massive and non-Christian cult.
I'm thinking of the fear voters had about JFK being controlled from Rome - does the Romney camp think voters would similarly be spooked by heavy ties to the church? Many are already pretty wiggy about it.
Don't forget about 2008 and 2009, which even Steve Schmidt hasn't seen. What if he profited off the crash like Paulson did? Or got some insider deal where he didn't lose as much as most people did?
People like Romney are NEVER held accountable. I'm convinced anything short of murder and even then there will be indoctrinated people who will vote for this crappy candidate for president. This guy can lie, have no experience, even the experience as a governor sucked, his Bain experience doesn't help either, and still have millions vote for him. He's used his wealth and indoctrination outlets (Fox, Rush, Drudge, Red State, et al) to influence the easily-manipulated' to support/vote for him.
The guy can do anything and he will still be within three points of Obama. It couldn't be any more clear who should be elected, who will do more (much more) to help America, and who should win by a landslide. And yet we're still looking at a close race.
Those on the Right, hold Obama to a much higher standard than they hold Romney to. This double standard reinforces the idea not to listen to these dip$hits or take them seriously because they don't take America seriously.
Oh you are being ridiculous I mean look how they went after those wall street bankers who caused the........Oh wait ...Never mind.
The rules are different if you have obscene amounts of money and can buy your way out.
Both Bain both the I.R.S. are distractions to keep Mitt on the defensive.
Which is working out well for him, since he apparently has no offense. (Platitudes don't count)
I look forward to the debates. (with a caveat: A moderator(s) who will ask some actual questions.)
How about getting a moderator that will demand answers to those questions and refuse to accept long-winded self-serving campaign statements on free air time? In my opinion, an experienced high school debate moderator could do a better job than these talk show hosts.
bluesmokeandmirrors Gets he comedy award of the day . How will moderate David Gregory ? Chris Wallace ? Cokie Roberts?
The talking head stenographer class is in the bag for Romney because a horse race is need for TEEVEE ratings and advertising dollars
Most like Gregory are 1% millionaires who leave no doubt whose team they are on.
The fix is in
I am still stumped and really, utterly amazed at the "retroactive" retirement schema. Like a "retroactive" colostomy or a "retroactive" abortion, I wish my checking account could be "retroactive". That anyone take that clause/schema seriously should mean the end of all things forever.. The GOP faithful have outdone themselves once again which I thought was impossible after the high crimes and high stupidity of those who lauded George W. Bush and his "policies".
Remember the long Beltway media debates over whether it was "out of bounds" to bring up the issue of Bain? It seems like a lifetime ago as the Romney-Bain connection has now consumed the campaign and caused what may turn out to be irrevocable damage to the Romney candidacy.
Remember also how some in the Beltway were lamenting how this campaign was going to be boring? Although the story of Bain was there to be had, one had the impression that some in the MSM did not want to cover the Bain story or Romney's tax history. But surprise-surprise, voters are actually tuned-in, and they are actually interested in such things.
The recent reports of increases in google searches and twitter buzz for Bain Capital means, among other things, more website visits and revenue for those reporting on the topic. Suddenly no one in the Beltway is debating whether Bain is out of bounds.
It really doesn't matter to me what the tax returns say, the fact that he is opposed vehemently to full disclosure and wants the American electorate to take him at his word says volumes. If it looks like a skunk and smells like a skunk, it's most likely a skunk. (No disrespect intended to skunks!) Mitt Romney will not receive my vote.
Where are the Low-rent comments? Did its dial-up fail or has it gone retroactive?
I wouldn't be surprised if Charles P. Pierce has it right:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/why-mitt-romney-wont-release-tax-returns-10719962?src=rss
Anyone not regularly reading Charles P. Pierce is missing the best political entertainment since Samuel Clemmons laid aside his pen!
So he's not showing his tax returns because we're not important enough to see them.
Sure. I can believe that of Mitt.
That is totally possible. It takes money to make money. A decent salary, modest life-style and exploiting all of the tax code options available, it's not hard to get a refund. Hell, politicians with money write the tax code so it only makes sense.
For most working people, this is not an option. With the OWS, 1% mentality that's taken hold recently, that would be a detriment and possibly turn-off voters.
I think he isn't releasing them because he doesn't want to. simple. He has always gotten to do exactly what he wanted, with the notable exception of losing his Senate bid. And he has been totally indulged in the process, even to the point of having some arguably criminal behavior when he was in high school totally overlooked. Remember, this was a school that later kicked a kid out for smoking a cigarette, but it turned its head when he led a gang who assaulted a kid to cut his hair, and dressed up as a cop and impersonated a police officer, actually pulling off traffic stops on the road. Shoot, Daddy even got him the uniform and red light!
Didn't want to go to Vietnam, no problem! Even after he felt the need to demonstrate against people who truly disbelieved in the war. Want to exercise some unbridled greed? No problem! Just be sure that whatever you do, you weave such a web of secrecy, grey areas and lies that no one can easily find their way through to the truth of how you did it.
Is the truth inconvenient to the particular people he is talking to? No problem... just lie. Or perhaps he has some means of retroactive truth? No, I didn't really promote and pass Romneycare... we have retroactively changed history. Truth is a foreign concept to him, because he has never acknowledged that it isn't constantly flexible and changeable.
He's changed his stance on reproductive rights? No big deal! Women deserve to control their own reproductive destinies, except when they don't. But I promise you, if he had a daughter, and she were in physical danger due to a pregnancy, he'd fly her absolutely anywhere to get her an abortion if it would save her life. Because he's different... he believes he's totally above all the ignorant, unentitled riffraff. And we don't deserve to be treated the same as he does, because he's just better.
Sounds a bit pathological to me. But calculating. How can we live with a president who makes decisions by hopping onto his donor-cycle to see who will pay the most?
Don't like someone's haircut? No problem. Just get some friends to hold the guy down, and clip away!
Are there embarrassing files in state hard drives? No problem. Just buy them up and erase them (I still don't understand how he did that. It's equivalent to shredding official documents.)
The man's a sociopath.
concluding with the possibility that the Republican presidential candidate might be, as she put it, "stupid."
Well, he is a Moron, er, I mean a Mormon, and I haven't met too many of them whose IQ wasn't lowered by their participation in that science fiction religion.
As a friend noted yesterday, Romney's resume is now the Bain of his existence.
Mitt has his money in 'a blind trust to avoid appearance of conflict of interest.' during his various campaigns. Thanks to The Daily Show last night for this. "A blind trust is an age old ruse, if you will, which is to say, you can always tell a blind trust what it can and cannot do. You can give a blind trust rules." Mitt Romney 10/18/94 A moment minus mendacity from Mitt.
A ruse, but legal. And you can bet that everyone in government office today is using it to their advantage.
WOW. It is a implication that there is something to hide. His Bain experience left him with one thing. He believes that a CEO has unlimited power.That may be true in the corporate world BUT he has a great deal to learn about being a president and answering the tough questions asked at press conferences. Sounds a if elected he would stonewall the entire press corp as well as the nation.
How could anyone NOT think he had something to hide, given his weird behavior?
Hey Mitt- Thanks for your example. Next year I'll send a small check but won't file any tax forms. If the government asks me to account for myself, I'll tell them that it's disgusting of them to ask.
I suppose getting trounced while running for the Presidential office is exponentially better than going to jail for Tax Evasion.
Romney doesn't want to release his tax returns because it would give the Obama team "hundreds of thousands of pages to comb through and distort, etc."
How freakin' complicated are his returns? The ones from 2011 were around 550 pages, including those for three trusts and a foundation. If he releases the 23 years he gave to McCain's people in 2008, and they're of similar length, that would be around 12,650 pages--not "hundreds of thousands."
He is right about one things. Lots of us will be looking at them to see what he's been doing all these years.
My guess re:Mitt's tax returns: Lots of legal deductions, tax avoidance by using (again, legal) loopholes and, in the end, nothing that he was really afraid to disclose. Just a little added drama and a diversion away from Bain Capital's out-sourcing of American labor and a "gotcha" by Mitttto Omama for Obama's trase in "hesitation" to provide a copy of his birth certificate. Mitt's Real Motive: If Mitt gets in a bind for real down the road, the talking heads will say the Democrats are just creating another tempest in a teapot.
I don't think so. I agree that there's probably nothing illegal, or even very surprising, there. However, seeing more of the things we already know about is pretty damning.
The very low tax rates, the use of shelters and various legal tax dodges, the overseas investments, the oversized deductions. All of these will generate resentment among middle and working class voters, especially those moderates in swing states that Romney can't afford to lose. You don't think that lots of people will be angry when they see 10, or 20, or more years of Mitt paying low tax rates that enable him to continue compounding his wealth--when they don't have the same opportunities?
And, if he finally releases those returns, the Dems will be able to claim that they forced him to do so. Just like Trump and the Repubs claimed that they "forced" Obama to release his long-form birth certificate. That, in itself, will be a win of sorts for Obama.