SALON

Thursday, Jan 19, 2012 3:14 AM UTC

A tax return compromise for Romney

His dad released 12 years of records when he ran for president. Mitt's only promising one. How about six? VIDEO

By

Topics: Mitt Romney, 2012 Elections, ,

A tax return compromise for RomneyMitt Romney holds up a poster of his father George Romney, Spartanburg, S.C., Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (Credit: AP)

Mitt Romney’s tax return troubles are only getting worse. I think he’s trying to inoculate himself from some of the blowback he’s sure to get when he finally releases them – one year only, 2011, and not until April – by warning us about some of what’s in them. On Tuesday he said he only pays around 15 percent in taxes because the bulk of his interest comes from investments, which are taxed at a much lower rate than income. He also told us he makes some money in speaking fees, but it’s “not very much.” Only $374,000, which puts him in the top 1 percent of American earners – even before you add in all that investment income. He really is the perfect frontman for the interests of the top 1 percent.

On Wednesday ABC News reported that Romney and his former employer Bain Capital have millions in offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands, which help reduce their tax rates, though they don’t eliminate U.S. taxes. Citizens for Tax Justice told ABC that offshore accounts cost the U.S. Treasury some $100 billion a year. The Romney campaign is pushing back on the ABC News report, confirming the candidate has investments in Cayman Islands funds while insisting they aren’t taxed at a lower rate. But the campaign would not say how much was invested in overseas tax havens, or why. The steady flow of news and rumors about Romney’s wealth and taxes will continue. His evasions only make every tidbit more newsworthy. He’s got to release his tax returns – and he ought to release more than one year’s.

Unbelievably, even his supposed ally New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Romney should release his tax returns today, in appearances nominally scheduled to boost the former Massachusetts governor. Even Christie acknowledged the normal protocol is to release them going back several years:

The way that I’ve conducted myself in my public life all along is I’ve released all of my tax returns. And I did it during the campaign — went back a number of years and released my tax returns. And I released them every year after I filed them — right after I filed them — to the public in New Jersey so they can see everything. And I think that’s the right way to go and that’s what I would tell Governor Romney to do. Now, he says he’s going to release them in April. I hope he does. The fact of the matter is, that’s what I would advise him to do.

On “Hardball” Wednesday I noted that Mitt’s father, George Romney, released 12 years of tax returns, when he ran for president in 1968, and they showed he didn’t avail himself of many loopholes commonly used by the wealthy to minimize what they pay. If Mitt wants to be half the man his father was, I joked, he should release six years. That was probably unfair. In this hypercharged political environment, when there’s new interest and outrage over the way the super-wealthy have rigged tax rules and other regulations for themselves, it would take courage to release six years. But Romney doesn’t have much of an alternative. One year, 2011, certainly won’t do; everyone knows that gives him time to clean up his accounting, minimize his use of loopholes and maximize his one-year tax rate. Twelve years is a politically unrealistic demand but one year would be politically foolish.

Here’s the “Hardball” conversation:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Joan Walsh

Joan Walsh is Salon's editor at large and the author of "What's the Matter With White People: Finding Our Way in the Next America." More Joan Walsh.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 62 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
168 points169 points | comment
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
163 points164 points | 90 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
157 points158 points | 99 comments
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
143 points144 points | 13 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
81 points82 points | 21 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations