Mitt Romney On Tax Returns: 'I'm Not A Business'

Originally posted by DaTroof
For a country full of people who go to H&R Block or other tax filing agencies to "get the most back" on their returns, they're pretty hypocritical to attack one's financial history.

I don't like Romney, but he's allowed the exact same legally accepted methods for filing taxes as any other American.

Non story.

Of course he is. The real point is that President Romney, unlike me and everybody who uses H&R Block, will have enormous influence on the design of the tax code and who will get paid what.

His actions or non-actions may change his tax liability by hundreds of millions of dollars to himself, personally.

I think we should know what his current position is so we can judge his desires for tax code alterations and understand where he has personal interests.

Another thing. He has $100 million in an IRA. How did that happen? IRA contribution limits (even with all the special self-employment provisions) are on the order of no more than $20k, $30k per year.

How could that happen? With very high probability: he was given some special-peculiar-share-class-tranche of various Bain capital funds available only to the managers which just happened to be massively and stupenously undervalued compared to an honest assessment but because it was all private and complex nobody knows for sure. So either he or his employer (remember he was CEO) probably committed fraud.

Originally posted by Riposte
Guess what everyone? Both Obama AND Romney will screw you six ways to sunday. They are IDENTICAL. They are both entirely captured and controlled by international banking and corporate interests.

This is false, and its a statement nearly always put out by conservative supporters.

Obama is weak and centrist and makes large compromises with international banking and corporate interests. Romney has no conception of having any interests other than those of international banking and corporations. There is a difference.

reply to post by OutKast Searcher


www.taxhistory.org...

Not hard to find Romney's 2010 and 2011 tax returns.../shrugs

"Corporations are people my friend"

Mitten Romney is the biggest joke to ever run for president.

I can't stand romney, but to Obama supporters, is this the change he sold you on?

Christ people are blind, it's politics as usual with obama/romney, nothing has changed. Some of these ads are exactly what obama rallied against. Can't believe these 2 have supporters at all.

reply to post by beezzer


Romney refuses to show his 2009 return, this is the same year that amnesty was offered to all holders of Swiss bank accounts to avoid prosecution. Anyone who took advantage of this amnesty is not eligible to be president, and I would be really surprised if mitt didn't have a Swiss bank account. There is more "ineligibility smoke" around Romney than there ever was around Obama.

Originally posted by Kaploink
The man is running for the most important office in the country and we are suppose to take his word that everything is fine. The one thing most people learn over the years is never trust a politician even if they are in your own party. They all lie.

If a politician is acting like a use car salesman that doesn't want you to see a carfax, then it's very likely something is wrong.

Besides every presidential nominee in recent history has released multiple years worth of tax returns. The country is not asking him to do something unprecedented.

edit on 9-8-2012 by Kaploink because: I can't type

this country is asking him to do something that george romney, mitts father, did himself.

www.washingtonpost.com...

The tradition used to be that candidates gave out general information on their income and financial assets via a statement. That all changed in 1967 when George Romney released his actual tax returns for the previous 12 years. “One year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show,” the elder Romney said then. His son, the presumptive Republican nominee in 2012, prefers to show almost nothing. Mitt Romney has only released his tax returns for 2010 and an estimate for 2011.

reply to post by sumogeek


I would appreciate your argument more if it wasn't entirely based on assumptions we have no evidence for.

Mitt Romney had a Swiss bank account.
Romney applied for amnesty.
Taking amnesty makes you ineligible for the Presidency. (Actually, that's not an assumption, it's just false.)
There are more questions over Romney's eligibility than Obama's. (Another one that is just false.)

But you can, of course, post however you choose to. Just because I have a preference needn't mean anything to you.

Besides, you have two stars for your post, so ATS must like your work.

Originally posted by charles1952
reply to post by sumogeek

 

I would appreciate your argument more if it wasn't entirely based on assumptions we have no evidence for.

Mitt Romney had a Swiss bank account.
Romney applied for amnesty.


Besides, you have two stars for your post, so ATS must like your work.

Newt thinks Romney had a Swiss bank account. I hate to say this but I believe Newt over you.

www.theatlantic.com...

www.wbur.org...


Google is your friend....Take a short break form Rush and do some real investigation!!!

Originally posted by abeverage
His name is WILLARD!!!

well it is!

It's bad enough we already had a President Millard (Fillmore), we really cannot now afford to have a President Willard!

Originally posted by DaTroof
For a country full of people who go to H&R Block or other tax filing agencies to "get the most back" on their returns, they're pretty hypocritical to attack one's financial history.

I don't like Romney, but he's allowed the exact same legally accepted methods for filing taxes as any other American.

Non story.

Whoa there buddy. Nobody is "attacking" his financial history, because no one knows what his financial history entails. He would have to release his tax returns for anyone to attack them. He is running for PRESIDENT, it isn't like he is trying to get elected to the school board...The people want to know as much about him as possible, and him not releasing it is just making things worse for himself.

Presidents release their tax returns. Plain and simple. Nothing new here. His financial history is very important if he wants to lead the nation, and all that releasing his returns will accomplish is showing the world that he is likely a crook. We aren't talking about the average person here. We are talking millions upon millionsi of dollars.

Originally posted by JiggyPotamus
Whoa there buddy. Nobody is "attacking" his financial history, because no one knows what his financial history entails.

Finally someone with a head above their shoulders. Sigh of relief.

We are talking millions upon millionsi of dollars.

I like that. "Millionsi". Sounds important and smooth. Now let's see how Romney handled his "millionsi".

Originally posted by mbkennel

This is false, and its a statement nearly always put out by conservative supporters.

Obama is weak and centrist and makes large compromises with international banking and corporate interests. Romney has no conception of having any interests other than those of international banking and corporations. There is a difference.

Whoa, now!

They're all the rightiest bunch of rights that ever righted a day in their lives. Your own perception has been skewed by decades of one-upmanship, to see who can get further to the right without losing their entire "support base". Or at least without losing the ones that think they're supporting a guy's policies. Typically, they'll promise something just slightly more extreme than the guy before, then when they get in office, they'll push it just a bit more.

The Overton Window is how they get you to think more right. They're playing you like a tin flute.

reply to post by olaru12

Dear olaru12,

You are absolutely right. I was wrong. He did have, and may still have a Swiss bank account. My apologies. All we have to now to clear this up is to deal with the three other comments I made.

Oh, Rush? I haven't heard him in the last six months to a year, at least. Even then it was a fading interest.

With respect,
Charles1952

P.s. From your first link:

That doesn't mean Mitt Romney was up to no good. There's no evidence of that. It's entirely possible that Romney really was just hedging against the dollar. That's the legitimate reason a very wealthy person would want a Swiss bank account. The not-so-legitimate reason is the secrecy -- to hide money from the IRS. It's unfair for the Obama campaign to insinuate Romney was doing the latter. But it'd be a lot more unfair if Romney was more transparent. We just don't know enough to say anything definitively. We don't know how long the account existed. We don't know whether Romney's lawyer or Romney himself set it up.

I just want to avoid unjustified assumptions. - C

So with the "I'm not a business comment" are you saying that if you WERE a business, you would release the returns?

Great, lets see the returns for BAIN CAPITAL (a business) for the time that you were in charge, then, instead.

Originally posted by Kaploink
The man is running for the most important office in the country and we are suppose to take his word that everything is fine.

We did that with the current President, didn't we?

reply to post by babybunnies

Dear babybunnies,

You raise a really good point. Hats off to you. (I'd give you a neater smiley, but I don't know how they work.)

I'm surprised that nobody is requesting that. I'd be a little surprised if Romney would have them though, but he might. I did a little looking and found this, which is kind of discouraging.
finance.fortune.cnn.com...

During the past few months I've repeatedly asked three big companies in the tax-wars cross hairs -- GE (GE), Verizon (VZ), and Exxon Mobil (XOM) -- to voluntarily disclose information that would refute allegations that they incurred no U.S. federal income tax for 2010. All have refused, saying they won't disclose anything not legally required. They still manage to complain about the allegations, however. I suspect that if I called the rest of the Fortune 500, I'd get 497 similar responses.

Maybe there's something in the SEC filings, if they file there. Thanks again.

With respect,
Charles1952

Originally posted by charles1952
He did have, and may still have a Swiss bank account. My apologies.

No need to apologize. If my memory serves me right, Romney has stated that this account was actually closed in recent history.

I used to have a Swiss bank account myself (I lived in Switzerland for a while), there was roughly $50 there for most of the time since I moved back to the US and then it quickly vanished since they started charging some maintenance fee. All the better.

I'm not holding anyone liable for having a Swiss bank account. I do admit if does sound suspect, though.

Oh Lord, another crazy Taxer thread.

Boo, frickin' hoo. Mitt should show his returns as soon as Obama releases his school records. Mittens has released the same thing every other President has, and they weren't even Photoshopped with layers.

This is easy...

Romney is an "ultra-wealthy" Mormon who wants to hide his wealth and his
greedy business practices from the public so that he may appear as an 'everyman'....he is not.

Obama is a liar who has failed to stop our endless (and expensive) wars,
failed to bring our troops home, and has trashed the US constitution...he believes himself above the law

Those two potential candidates represent the corporate and banking elite who finance
their campaigns...neither serve the American people.....they both serve only their masters

They are Darth Sidious and Darth Maul....

But there is one who can stand against them....all hope is not lost