Romney tax returns have 55 pages of foreign entities to park money offshore.

Where the Money Lives
For all Mitt Romney’s touting of his business record, when it comes to his own money the Republican nominee is remarkably shy about disclosing numbers and investments. Nicholas Shaxson delves into the murky world of offshore finance, revealing loopholes that allow the very wealthy to skirt tax laws, and investigating just how much of Romney’s fortune (with $30 million in Bain Capital funds in the Cayman Islands alone?) looks pretty strange for a presidential candidate.


These, plus the mandatory financial disclosures filed with the Office of Government Ethics and released last August, raise many questions. A full 55 pages in his 2010 return are devoted to reporting his transactions with foreign entities. “What Romney does not get,” says Jack Blum, a veteran Washington lawyer and offshore expert, “is that this stuff is weird.”


http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/08/investigating-mitt-romney-offshore-accounts

 

They were so poor in college they had to sell their stocks to get by. And the mortgage dad loaned (collateral?) them in 1971 was only $42k.

 

I hate when that happens.

 

i think most voters would find making money admirable. parking that money offshore to avoid taxes while running for president not so much. if obama werent black this guy would be in big trouble.

 

Not so fast, sir. I don't think most voters think being born on first base (or beyond) is admirable--just lucky. Further, it depends how the money is made. Does the typical voter think money made by gaming the financial system is admirable?

 

What tax benefit does he get from this? He's reporting everything to the IRS.

I have offshore accounts and I report them to the IRS, just as Romney does. I pay all federal and state taxes as required.

"Parking" money offshore does not provide any tax benefits. All funds and income have to be reported and are taxed the same as if they were in the US.

 

It's about perception, at least in part. The middle class has been shrinking, the ranks of the poor and the rich have been growing. Does a guy with assets enough to park them abroad resemble most Americans? No.

 

Did John F. Kennedy resemble most Americans?

 

Was America so stratified back then? Did JFK talk to Americans the way Romney does?

 

Yeah, but the Kennedy family was wise enough to keep most of their assets onshore when any family member was running for office.

This allowed them to present an image of a cozy, but rich "All-American" family for the press. Nobody even deeply questioned that the original fortune came from bootlegging.