How Mitt Romney will pay heavily for his unreleased tax returns

[morningfog]

Mitt Romney has a problem.

It's not that public opinion polls show he narrowly but persistently trails President Obama, particularly in key swing states. It's not that he has higher personal unfavorabilities than favorabilites. It's not that a mere 30% of voters think he's more likable than his opponent. And it's not that he just returned from a gaffe-filled overseas trip where he found a way to step on one foreign landmine after another, and got called out by London's Mayor, Boris Johnson, live in front of 60,000 Brits.

Ok, well, actually those are all his problems – big problems, in fact. But, amazingly, Mitt Romney may have an even bigger one. After releasing two abridged years of tax returns, he has steadfastly insisted that he won't release any more. This is an issue that isn't going away – and one that has the potential to haunt him every single day of the 2012 campaign.

* * *

That he will not – and that Reid knew he will not – is the root of Romney's dilemma. Clearly, there is information in those IRS transcripts that is so toxic and so politically devastating that Romney is unwilling to take the political risk of releasing them. But Romney's refusal to release means that he opens himself to attacks like Reid's. In the absence of contrary evidence, Democrats can spend the next three months speculating or passing along gossip about what Romney is hiding.

A consistent focus on Romney's taxes raises all sorts of questions with the potential to plague the Romney campaign: why did he have overseas accounts in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland; why does he have a tax-deferred individual retirement account (IRA), which could be worth close to $100m, even though the annual contribution limit to an IRA is $6,000; how did he accumulate all of his $200m fortune? To be sure, even if we had Romney's tax records, the Obama campaign could raise these issues. But the absence of Romney's returns – and the obvious inference that he has something to hide – serve to give the speculation real resonance.

Above all, the tax issue goes to the heart of Romney's biography – namely, his business experience.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/07/mitt-romney-pay-heavily-for-unreleased-tax-returns?newsfeed=true

[TeamPooka]

1. We all deserve the ability to fund $100 million IRA's

Mitt needs to share how he does it.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

2. The article states he's released two years of returns

Has he? I thought the 2011 return was still being prepared by his accountants.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. I haven't seen it yet.

However, this is the second time I've read it's been released.

[morningfog]

4. He hasn't released the full 2011.

I read somewhere, I can't remember now, that his 2010 hasn't been released in full either.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. I thought he had just released a 2011 estimate

which isn't signed under penalty of perjury or filed with the IRS and means nothing.

On edit: On second thought, I'm not sure that Mittens hasn't filed and signed a 2011 estimate and made payments of estimated taxes. When he repeatedly mentions showing an estimate I'm not sure if it's an official estimate with payment of estimated taxes owed or not. I've seen the 2010 return but nothing for 2011.