Hmmm....Did Romney Pay ZERO taxes in 2008? (This Guy May Be Onto Something)

[Blackhatjack]

In 2008, Did Romney(the taxpayer) lend himself(the politician) $45 mil? And pay ZERO taxes that year 2008?

Read it for yourself?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kelly/did-mitt-romney-pay-any-t_b_1222395.html

"I think Mitt Romney didn't pay any taxes in 2008.

Not 35%. Not 15%. Zero.

Between February 2007 and February 2008, Mitt Romney made a huge financial blunder. He lent Mitt Romney $45 million to run for president. (In July 2008, he wrote a letter to the FEC, informing them that Mitt Romney was "forgiving the outstanding loans" to Mitt Romney and that the loans should be "reclassified as contributions.&quot Where did successful businessman Mitt Romney get the $45 million to lend politician Mitt Romney, loser and clod? If he got the cash by liquidating stock, he did at least some of it during the Dow's 200-point decline in the winter of 2007/2008.

I'm not saying that's what he did -- and it's impossible to know without his returns -- but if he did, isn't possible that he took a substantial loss?"

MORE

[gateley]

1. What sucks is that if even if this is true, it's legal.

ETA: I'm SO hoping we'll find some illegal stuff, but with breaks like these, they don't really need to risk it.

[rustydog]

2. It may be legal..What sares the shit out of Rawmoney is people know it isn't RIGHT

and he does not need a spotlight on the discrepency between the ultra rich and you and me...

[gateley]

4. I know -- and again, if he's paying taxes on it all WHY sock it away in the Caymans? But

the people who are making excuses for him would shrug this off. I'm hoping that true independents will see this for what it is. Thomm Hartmann used FDR's term: the economic royalists. We call them the 1%.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

5. Without having more information, how do you know that it is legal? How would anyone?

[gateley]

9. Well I'm assuming the ones he's willing to show are legal.

And if Mitt Romney couldn't have legally forgiven Mitt Romney for the debt, he wouldn't have been able to do it.

[kestrel91316]

3. I am already assuming that's what Mittens feels he has to hide: the fact that in SOME years

he has paid ZERO income taxes, in spite of income in the millions.

[gratuitous]

6. Zero taxes? Nah

I'm thinking that if Mitt liquidated some stock holdings at a loss to self-finance his vanity run for President in 2008, he very carefully documented every penny of that loss, and made damn sure it was deducted from his taxable income. He probably got a refund. And, by re-classifying his "loan" as a "contribution," the IRS was stuck with trying to tax the Mitt Romney campaign for its huge windfall, and having to write off any taxation of the repayment of the loan back to Mitt (since Mitt would never be repaid by his own campaign).

This could be yet another reason that this year's presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants nothing to do with disclosing the financial dealings of past years' Mitt Romney. And you suckers who work for a living can just piss up a rope.

[Blackhatjack]

7. Romney would be an "object lesson" of what is wrong with the tax code...

And if he did it to benefit himself in 2008, makes you wonder what he will do to avoid tax payment for himself and his wealthy friends if he were to occupy the Oval Office.

He already said corporate taxes ought to be ZERO.

[karynnj]

8. Even if he lost from their on paper value in 2008, it could actually still be a gain

Why? Imagine that it was stock purchased in say 2003 that made huge gains for the next several years, then fell with the market. It is possible that they were actually gains.