You know, the Amnesty question is really a big issue

[1-Old-Man]

If you will allow me to simplify for a moment the Amnesty question goes like this. The bank of switzerland was offering overly aggressive tax avoidance schemes that the IRS thought were illegal and that several thousand Americans had bought into them. A deal was worked out between the IRS and the bank and "investors" who had played in the scheme were offered and amnesty period during which they would pay the taxes they should have along with fines and reduced penalties and for doing this they would not be prosecuted for the tax evasion they had practiced. It is speculated that Mitt Romney was one of those given immunity and that all this would be revealed if he were to show his tax returns for a several recent years.

This is has the potential to be a really big issue. Mitt Romney, who does no work for his income, appears to have spent his life building up a web of investments that support him to the tune of millions of dollars a year while minimizing his tax liability to an absurdly low level. This has been his life's work, the building of a self sustaining and ever growing financial empire unburdened by the need to support any particular state. Romney is, after all, not an American first but a financial man of the world with no more allegiance to this nation than can be whittled out of the tax code.

Release the returns!

[Spazito]

1. I agree, it is a BIG issue, a question that remains outstanding and one Romney needs to answer...

"Romney is, after all, not an American first but a financial man of the world with no more allegiance to this nation than can be whittled out of the tax code."

Well said.

[Gregorian]

3. Not only that, but there is something even bigger in this story

There are many very wealthy Americans whose incomes are similar to this scenario in the sense that they have huge income to tax ratios.

And this goes beyond Mitt Romney. This hits at the heart of the 1% problem.

[Lucy Goosey]

4. Well said.

Is the issue even being mentioned by the mainstream media? It really should be part of the debate.

[BlueStreak]

7. It is well past the point where we could write it off as negilgence or incompetence

There is a conspiracy of silence on this issue. It would take only 5 seconds to deal with this.

"Governor Romney, have you every benefited from an IRS amnesty program with regard to Swiss bank accounts."

The fact that Romney has never been asked this simple question indicates that the press covering him knows that question is off limits. It wasn't just (potentially) Romney playing this game. It was thousands of Americans cheating the system. And a lot of them probably carry a lot of power in the media corporations.

[BlueStreak]

8. The crescendo is building

From 4 days ago we have http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/21/1134905/-It-s-time-to-make-him-deny-it

The level of aggressiveness in legal and accounting strategies that would allow someone's IRA to grow to as high as $102 million surely invites suspicion regarding anything else that looks even emotively interesting in their finances. And the mere existence of Romney's Swiss account certainly passes that threshold.

There were about 19,000 accounts in Swiss banks that American citizens hid from the IRS until the lawsuit exposing them, and the IRS amnesty that followed. Simple logic suggests the owners are clustered near Mitt's end of the of wealth spectrum.

Logic also says that someone that instructs their lawyers and accountants to push the envelope to reduce their tax obligations to the extent obvious from what is known might be inclined to do some outright cheating too, especially if protected by the legendary Swiss banking secrecy.

My fourth estate training of long ago suggests that everyone running for President that has a Swiss account and an IRA with $102 million treads close enough to the line that it is entirely appropriate to ask the question..

This is a guy who ran a notorious "Son of Boss" scheme form Marriott. He is certainly not above tax evasion through Swiss bank accounts.

Some people would say, we know Romney is sleazy enough to do this, but he isn't stupid enough to do that while he's running for President. But that is probably not how it happened. He probably opened the account around 2002 when he was leaving Bain (formally). At that time there was all sorts of financial restructuring in order to transfer assets to the people who ended up taking over Bain. That would have been the ideal time to send some of the money offshore so that Romney would never have to pay taxes on it. At that time, he was not running for President and had no active plans to. Moreover, this was a Swiss bank account. The Swiss never divulge anything. What could possibly go wrong?

And that was all fine for years. The Swiss account probably would not appear anywhere on the tax returns Romney showed to McCain. But then in 2008, it all started to go bad. By that time. Romney was already running for President. He really didn't have much of a choice. He had to take the amnesty. His only decision was whether to drop out of politics altogether or to just try to tough it out. And he chose to tough it out (hypothetically speaking, of course.) After all, these records are confidential and even if it got out, the average American doesn't understand financial stuff. "I'll just tell them that is part of my financial genius. I am so much better than Obama, it won't matter."

[JDPriestly]

5. K&R

[sabrina 1]

9. Did they ever release a list of the 4,450 Americans who had secret accounts in Switzerland?

I haven't checked but I have not seen one posted anywhere this subject comes up.

When you read all the information available on this subject, it is hard to not come to the conclusion that Romney did cheat on his taxes for years.

If eg, he were to release ten years of tax returns and if he was one of those given amnesty, those returns would show that adjustments had to be made for each of the years he held the USB account.

It's interesting the way his tax attorney explained that Romney 'owed taxes' for each of those years. He did not say Romeny 'paid taxes' for each of those years. He then said that all those taxes 'had been paid'. Which they would be IF he had accepted the Amnesty Agreement which required paying all back taxes.

The Press should be asking questions about this issue. But at least someone is.

[JDPriestly]

10. Agreed.

[JDPriestly]

11. It's possible that someone in Congress or in the IRS, maybe someone who moved in and out of the IRS

staff and knows a member of Congress saw the names -- or some of them.

If you saw a list like that, you might notice a name you recognized, but you might not be absolutely certain of the details. I wonder if someone who saw the list whispered in the ears of one of more members of Congress. That shouldn't happen, but it would be difficult to prevent it.

[sabrina 1]

12. A few people have suggested that maybe this is what Harry Reid meant when he said

he was certain that Romney had not paid taxes and that he had it 'on good authority'. I don't think Reid would go out on a limb like that unless he was sure.

So, you may be right, someone may have seen the list and passed it on to members of Congress. I don't see why we all should not see it frankly. If they were working class people who had broken the law like that, it would be headlines on the news.

[Cheviteau]

6. Harry's Jabs

I have said from the first time Harry Reid spoke of this on the senate floor that he (Harry) knows more about Mitt's taxes than Mitt himself knows. And I have a feeling Mitt is aware of this. A lot to be uncovered about this sorry story.