DOWNLOADS: (164)

PLAYS: (847)

Embed

I don't expect we'll see any Republicans willing to support his legislation, but good for Sen. Sanders for doing this: Senator Introduces Bill To End Huge Corporate Tax Giveaway:

Corporations offshoring profits costs both the federal government and states billions of dollars per year. One of the more egregious giveaways is known as “deferral,” which allows U.S. corporations to avoid paying taxes on overseas profits until they bring that money back to the U.S., giving them every incentive to leave it overseas permanently.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, “The current tax system provides incentives for U.S. firms to locate their production facilities in countries with low taxes as a way to reduce their tax liability at home,” ultimately resulting in compensation for U.S. workers being lower. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is introducing a bill today that would end this practice and close several other corporate tax loopholes: [...]

According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, “the provisions in this bill will raise more than $590 billion in revenue over the next decade.”

Due to the proliferation of loopholes, credits, and the use of tax havens, major corporations haven’t paid the full statutory tax rate in 45 years. In 2011, the 12.1 percent effective rate that corporations paid was the lowest in 40 years.

Here's more from Sen. Sanders' site: End Offshore Tax Havens:

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (208)

PLAYS: (1191)

Embed

It seems former President George W. Bush isn't too worried about giving Mitt Romney some bad press just before the election. As Steve Benen noted, the contrast between how Bill Clinton is spending his time these days and Bush couldn't be more stark -- A tale of two former presidents:

Just this week, former President Bill Clinton has campaigned for President Obama in Florida, Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado, and Iowa. Today, Clinton will hit the stump for Obama in Wisconsin and again in Ohio. By most measures, the former president has become Obama's most popular and most effective surrogate.

And then there's Clinton's successor.

[George W. Bush] will spend Thursday in the Cayman Islands, delivering the keynote address at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit. As Romney struggles to convince voters that he understands their economic struggles, having the previous Republican president reminding them of the questions surrounding Romney's financial dealings in the Caymans is beyond unhelpful.

Yes, as we first discussed in September, George W. Bush, with just five days remaining before Election Day, is headed to one of the most politically inconvenient locations possible for Mitt Romney: the Republican will deliver the keynote address this evening at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit.

In case anyone's forgotten, Romney ran into a little trouble over the summer when we learned he has stashed cash in the Cayman Islands, and played fast and loose with the facts, hoping the public won't realize that Romney is using the Caymans as an apparent tax-avoidance scheme.

Which reminds me -- has anyone asked Romney about his secret tax returns lately?

Fat chance of that happening. Romney's been running from reporters asking him questions he doesn't like for months on end now.

DOWNLOADS: (193)

PLAYS: (1762)

Embed

I'm not sure if the Romney campaign actually thought continuing to ask questions about his tax returns was going to distract from the dismal news cycle he's had for the last week or two, and is somehow better than talking about his "47 percent" remarks at that fundraiser, but here we go with a Friday news dump and the release of his 2011 returns.

As David Cay Johnston pointed out on Ed Schultz's show this Friday evening, the poorly worded press release just leaves more questions unanswered than answered and the 14.1 percent rate he paid could easily be amended down later if he fails to win his bid for the presidency.

Here's more from Think Progress on the subject -- 10 Questions Romney Should Answer About His Taxes:

On Friday afternoon, the Romney campaign released the candidate’s 2011 tax return, which showed that he paid a tax rate of approximately 14 percent on more than $13 million of reported income. The campaign also disclosed that Romney voluntarily forfeited about $1.8 million in charitable deductions to inflate the tax rate he would have to disclose to the public. The campaign continues to refuse to release returns prior to 2010, flunking an accepted standard of transparency, first established by Mitt’s father George Romney, of releasing multiple years’ returns.

In a blog post, Romney’s lawyer and the trustee of his “blind trust” said, “After you have reviewed all of the newly-posted documents, you may have further questions.” Yes, we do. Lots.

Here are 10 unanswered questions about Romney’s taxes:

1. After the election, when the subject of your tax returns is outside of the public glare, will you file an amended tax return to claim your full deduction of charitable contributions? Was the tax rate you reported for other years similarly manipulated?

2. Why was your 2011 income $7 million lower than you estimated it to be in January? How does someone overestimate their income by $7 million?

3. Financial disclosures show that you have as much as $82 million in your tax-deferred Individual Retirement Account, despite the fact that tax rules limited contributions into such accounts to $30,000 per year. Did you lowball the value of the assets you put into your IRA, as tax experts suspect? And did you do the same with gifts into your sons’ trusts?

4. What was the purpose of your Swiss bank account and the myriad offshore entities shown on your return, based in countries like the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg, if not to avoid taxes?

5. Can you explain what one tax expert has called a “mysterious one-time infusion of foreign tax credits” in 2008?

Follow the link above to read the rest. Rough transcript of Johnston's interview with Schultz, who had some similar questions, below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (202)

PLAYS: (1818)

Embed

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says that leaked tapes insulting the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay income taxes as "dependant" on the government have given the world a "rare look at the real Mitt Romney."

Earlier this year, Reid had suggested that the Republican presidential nominee refused to release his tax returns because he had not paid any income taxes over a 10-year period, a charge that the Majority Leader renewed during a scathing speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday.

"This week we learned that Mitt Romney only wants to be president of half the United States," he explained. "If Mitt Romney were president he wouldn't waste time worrying about the 47 percent of Americans who he believes are 'victims,' who Romney believes are 'unwilling to take personal responsibility.'"

Reid continued: "For all we know Mitt Romney could be one of those who have paid no federal income tax. Thousands of families making more than a million dollars per year pay nothing in federal income tax. Is Mitt Romney among those? We'll never know because he refuses to release his tax returns."

"We know that Mitt Romney pays a lower tax rate than middle-class families, thanks to a number of things he's done: Swiss bank accounts, Cayman Islands tax shelters. And we can only imagine what new secrets would be revealed if he showed the American people a dozen years of tax returns like his dad did."

Reid pointed out that most of "those people" who Romney talked about "are not avoiding their tax bills using Cayman Islands tax shelters or Swiss Bank accounts like Mitt Romney. Millions of the 47 percent are seniors on Social Security, who don't have Bain Capital retirement funds or inherited stock to fall back on."

"This rare look at the real Mitt Romney, this rare look from a man who was a fundraiser for him, proves one thing: He's completely out of touch with average Americans," the Nevada Democrat concluded. "And if he won't stand up and fight for every American as president the he doesn't deserve to serve any American as president."

For his part, Romney insisted in August that he had paid more than 13 percent of his income in taxes — or more if donations to the Mormon church were included — over the last 10 years, and accused the people who want to see his returns of being “small minded.”

(h/t: ABC News)

DOWNLOADS: (562)

PLAYS: (6937)

Embed

From this Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill takes Mitt Romney to task for his carping over the made up non-controversy that President Obama supposedly wants to take the word God off of our money. And then you had the Republicans making a big deal about whether god was removed from their platform or not at this year's convention.

As Bill pointed out, worrying about whether the word is on our money or not is redundant, since our god is already the almighty dollar, and in Mittens' case, probably parked over in the Cayman Islands in one of those tax shelters he loves so much.

DOWNLOADS: (204)

PLAYS: (1445)

Embed

Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland delivered a barn burner of a speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention this Tuesday night and landed some body blows to Mitt Romney for everything from his offshore tax havens to his vulture capitalism at Bain to wanting to allow Detroit to go bankrupt, which would have devastated Ohio's economy.

The HuffPo has the entire speech, but here's the portion from the clip above:

Now, Mitt Romney, he lives by a different code. To him, American workers are just numbers on a spreadsheet.

To him, all profits are created equal, whether made on our shores or off. That's why companies Romney invested in were dubbed "outsourcing pioneers." Our nation was built by pioneers—pioneers who accepted untold risks in pursuit of freedom, not by pioneers seeking offshore profits at the expense of American workers here at home.

Mitt Romney proudly wrote an op-ed entitled, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." If he had had his way, devastation would have cascaded from Michigan to Ohio and across the nation. Mitt Romney never saw the point of building something when he could profit from tearing it down. If Mitt was Santa Claus, he'd fire the reindeer and outsource the elves.

Mitt Romney has so little economic patriotism that even his money needs a passport. It summers on the beaches of the Cayman Islands and winters on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. In Matthew, chapter 6, verse 21, the scriptures teach us that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. My friends, any man who aspires to be our president should keep both his treasure and his heart in the United States of America. And it's well past time for Mitt Romney to come clean with the American people.

On what he's saying about the president's policy for welfare to work, he's lying. Simple as that. On his tax returns, he's hiding. You have to wonder, just what is so embarrassing that he's gone to such great lengths to bury the truth? Whatever he's doing to avoid taxes, can it possibly be worse than the Romney-Ryan tax plan that would have sliced Mitt's total tax rate to less than one percent?

My friends, there is a true choice in this election. Barack Obama is betting on the American worker. Mitt Romney is betting on a Bermuda shell corporation. Barack Obama saved the American auto industry. Mitt Romney saved on his taxes. Barack Obama is an economic patriot. Mitt Romney is an outsourcing pioneer. My friends, the stakes are too high, the differences too stark to sit this one out. Let us stand as one on November 6th and move this country forward by re-electing President Barack Obama.

DOWNLOADS: (84)

PLAYS: (654)

Embed

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign on Wednesday partied with wealthy donors on a 150-foot yacht that flies the flag of the Cayman Islands, according to an ABC News report.

Members of the Romney Victory Council, who have each raised more than $1 million for the candidate, mingled with Romney's brother, Scott, and other relatives in Tampa aboard the luxury yacht "Cracker Bay."

While they waited outside the unadvertised event, ABC News snapped photos of the Cayman Islands civil ensign flag flying on the yacht's stern.

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) was reportedly scheduled to speak to the more than 50 people attending.

"It was a really nice event," billionaire energy industry executive Wilbur Ross told the network. "These are good supporters."

Romney came under fire earlier this year when it was revealed that he had millions stashed in the Cayman Islands, a notorious tax haven. In August, Vanity Fair reported that Romney still had a personal stake in at least 12 of Bain Capital's Cayman Island funds, worth up to $30 million.

The candidate recently insisted to Fox News host Chris Wallace that "there was no reduction — not one dollar reduction — in taxes by virtue of having an account in Switzerland or a Cayman Islands investment."

"I think it's ironic they do this aboard a yacht that doesn't even pay its taxes," a woman who lives at the marina where Cracker Bay is moored told ABC News.

DOWNLOADS: (171)

PLAYS: (1465)

Embed

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney insists that he didn't shut down his tax shelters in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Switzerland because it would "avoid the truth" and he wasn't going to "manipulate my life" just to become president.

Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Romney in an interview that aired on Sunday why he didn't close the Swiss bank accounts and get out of the investments in the Cayman Islands before he spent the last eight years running for president.

"First of all, there was no reduction -- not one dollar reduction -- in taxes by virtue of having an account in Switzerland or a Cayman Islands investment," Romney explained. "The dollars of taxes remained exactly the same. There was no tax savings at all. And the conduct of the trustee and making investments was entirely consistent with U.S. law and all the taxes paid were those legally owed and there was no tax saving by virtue of those entities."

"But why not just go to him a long time ago and just say, get out of these things?" Wallace pressed.

"Don't invest in anything outside the United States?" Romney replied. "I mean, I could have said, 'Don't make any investments in any foreign companies, in any foreign bonds, in any foreign currency -- only U.S. entities. And by the way, don't buy any foreign products, don't have any Japanese TVs or foreign cars.' I mean, yeah, I could have done that."

"But, I mean, I did live my life," he continued. "And I expect by virtue of disclosing all these things, people can take a look at it and see whether that's something they're comfortable with or not. I'm not going to try and hide who I am and try and manipulate my life to try and avoid the truth."

DOWNLOADS: (297)

PLAYS: (2481)

Embed

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Thursday insisted that he had paid more than 13 percent of his income in taxes over the last 10 years, and accused the people who want to see his returns of being "small minded."

During a press conference at the airport in Greer, South Carolina, the GOP hopeful told reporters that he couldn't understand why people keep asking about his taxes.

"I just have to say, given the challenges that America faces -- 23 million people out of work, Iran about to become nuclear, one out of six Americans in poverty -- the fascination with taxes I paid I find to be very small minded compared to the broad issues that we face," Romney explained.

"But I did go back and look at my taxes and over the past 10 years, I never paid less than 13 percent," he continued. "I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that. So, I pay taxes every single year."

Romney added that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) assertion that he had not paid any taxes over 10 years was "totally false."

"I'm sure waiting for Harry to put up who it was that told him what he says they told him," the former Massachusetts governor said. "I don't believe it for a minute by the way."

"But every year, I paid at least 13 percent," he insisted. "And if you add in addition the amount the goes to charity [at the Mormon church], well, the number gets well above 20 percent."

During an interview that’s scheduled to air on Thursday, Ann Romney said that there would be “no more tax releases given” by the wealthy couple, but she also insisted that “there’s nothing we’re hiding.”

“We have been very transparent to what’s legally required of us,” the candidate's wife told NBC's Natalie Morales. “But the more we release, the more we get attacked, the more we get questioned, the more we get pushed. And so, we have done what’s legally required. And there’s going to be no more tax releases given.”

“There’s nothing we’re hiding,” Ann Romney said. “You know, we’ve had a blind trust for how many years? We don’t even know what’s in there. It’s been managed by blind trust since before Mitt was governor, you know, 2002 forward. And so, you know, I’ll be curious to see what’s in there too.”

Over the course of the summer, President Barack Obama’s campaign has successfully attacked Mitt Romney by connecting him to American jobs that Bain Capital allegedly helped send overseas. It has also hammered him for not releasing more than two years of tax returns and having offshore investments and tax shelters in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Switzerland.

DOWNLOADS: (335)

PLAYS: (4714)

Embed

Ann Romney, the wife of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, recently said that there will be "no more tax releases given" by the wealthy couple, but she also insisted that "there's nothing we're hiding."

During an interview that's scheduled to air on Thursday, NBC's Natalie Morales noted that people were still calling for the Romneys to release more than two years of tax returns.

"Have you seen how we're attacked?" Ann Romney said, leaning forward in her chair. "Have you seen what's happened?"

"Are you angry that it's been in the press?" Morales wondered. "I mean, should you not be questioned about your finances?"

"We have been very transparent to what's legally required of us," Ann Romney replied. "But the more we release, the more we get attacked, the more we get questioned, the more we get pushed. And so, we have done what's legally required. And there's going to be no more tax releases given."

"To the American people, though, when they hear about perhaps accounts with your name on it overseas and tax shelters, they feel like you may be hiding something," Morales pointed out.

"There's nothing we're hiding," Romney explained. "You know, we've had a blind trust for how many years? We don't even know what's in there. It's been managed by blind trust since before Mitt was governor, you know, 2002 forward. And so, you know, I'll be curious to see what's in there too."

Over the course of the summer, President Barack Obama’s campaign has successfully attacked Mitt Romney by connecting him to American jobs that Bain Capital allegedly helped send overseas. It has also hammered him for not releasing more than two years of tax returns and having offshore investments and tax shelters in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Switzerland.

After the Romney campaign made the decision to release two years of returns in January, Ann Romney told a crowd of supporters in Miami that “unfortunately” everyone now knows how “successful in business” her husband had been.