Analysis: Why won't Romney release more tax returns?

[Ruby the Liberal]

The authors: Edward D. Kleinbard is a professor at Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California. He is the former chief of staff of Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation. Peter C. Canellos, a lawyer, is former chair of the New York State Bar Association Tax Section.

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Given Romney's financial sophistication, it has been assumed by some that there cannot be any tax skeletons in his closet. His reluctance to disclose past returns, however, undermines that assumption. We are left with the difficult task of plausibly reconstructing his financial record based on the one full return that he has released. The result is troubling.

Mitt Romney is extraordinarily wealthy, but that is not a justification for nondisclosure. He has made no secret of his wealth, and required campaign disclosures already hint at its magnitude. While Romney may have dissembled about when he actually left Bain Capital, he has been disassociated with the firm long enough that he cannot argue that his tax returns will reveal proprietary secrets.

Nor is this just an exercise in financial titillation or gossip. Disclosure goes to the heart of the truthfulness with which a nominee engages the American people, and it assures us that he in fact has comported himself before the election with the high moral character we associate with a future president. Romney's 2010 tax return, when combined with his FEC disclosure, reveals red flags that raise serious tax compliance questions with respect to his possible tax minimization strategies in earlier years.

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(Bullets of the discussion)

1. The first is Romney's Swiss bank account. Most presidential candidates don't think it appropriate to bet that the U.S. dollar will lose value by speculating in Swiss Francs, which is basically the rationale offered by the trustee of Romney's "blind" trust for opening this account. || The IRS announced in 2009 a partial tax amnesty for unreported foreign bank accounts, in light of the Justice Department's criminal investigations involving several Swiss banks. To date, some 34,500 Americans have taken advantage of such amnesty programs.

2. Second, Romney's $100 million IRA is remarkable in its size.

3. Third, the vast amounts in Romney's family trusts raise a parallel question: Did Romney report and pay gift tax on the funding of these trusts or did he claim similarly unreasonable valuations, which likewise would have exposed him to serious penalties if all the facts were known?

4. Fourth, the complexity of Romney's one publicly released tax return, with all its foreign accounts, trusts, corporations and partnerships, leaves even experts (including us) scratching their heads.

5. Finally, there's the puzzle of the Romneys' extraordinarily low effective tax rate.

Emphasis mine, dramatically snipped.

Full: http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/18/opinion/kleinbard-canellos-romney-tax/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

This is an excellent read. My bet on #2&3 is undervalued, pre-IPO type of stuff - or pre merger pink sheet listed penny stocks. The "magic oak" as they called it, sheltered as deferred compensation.

Hats off to them for the conclusion as well:

For a nominee to America's highest office, a clear and transparent reporting of his finances should be nothing more than routine.

Routine, indeed.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

1. This is becoming as intriguing as a mystery novel to me

Now I really want to know what's there. If Romney loses the election but doesn't reveal his taxes I'll forever wish I could know what he's hiding. If by some great misfortune he should win but we still don't know if the President is a possible tax cheat can you imagine the American people living with this situation on an ongoing basis?

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. His base doesn't want to know how his sausage was made

They want to glorify him as some kind of bootstraps/self-made small businessman - but they damn sure don't want to know how he got from daddy's seed money to where he is today.