“I don’t know of any American president who has had a Swiss bank account.”
~Newt Gingrich 

If you read through the Vanity Fair expose you will realize just how sleazy all of these transactions are.  Even though Mitt Romney has stashed away untold millions in the Caymans, Swiss Bank Accounts, Bermuda, Luxembourg, Ireland – all known offshore tax havens … he still claims his tax rate on those holdings are the same as if he just had the money here in the U.S.  So – let’s follow that logic all the way through to it’s obvious ridiculous conclusion:

#1 – It’s interesting that his accounts are only in countries that are low tax offshore tax haven countries notorious for secrecy or a lack of transparency.  So – on it’s face … he’s clearly not being honest just like he’s not honest about most everything he says.  But – for the sake of argument … let’s say he is being honest.  So that leads us to #2.

#2 – If he is being honest … he loves America SOOOO much that he’s putting his money everywhere else even though he claims there is not an actual financial benefit.  So – why is his money not in American banks then?  In other words – why would you do that if not for financial benefit?  It’s not that he doesn’t love America … he does – it’s just that his money wants to see other banks.  Got it?

One of the first things to note – his money is very hard to differentiate from Bain Capital’s money.  The success and failure of Bain Capital is so closely integrated to his own personal fortune … every time Bain Capital shuts down a company after sucking them dry … Mitt makes unknown millions.  We’d like to know but he won’t say.  Vanity Fair does an awesome expose on where Mitt’s money lives HERE.  

That’s not the only money Romney has in tax havens. Because of his retirement deal with Bain Capital, his finances are still deeply entangled with the private-equity firm that he founded and spun off from Bain and Co. in 1984. Though he left the firm in 1999, Romney has continued to receive large payments from it—in early June he revealed more than $2 million in new Bain income. The firm today has at least 138 funds organized in the Cayman Islands, and Romney himself has personal interests in at least 12, worth as much as $30 million, hidden behind controversial confidentiality disclaimers. Again, the Romney campaign insists he saves no tax by using them, but there is no way to check this.

Romney’s I.R.A. also appears to have invested in so-called blocker corporations in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere. U.S. pension funds, foundations, and even I.R.A.’s routinely use offshore blocker corporations to avoid something called the Unrelated Business Income Tax, which was designed to keep nonprofits from competing with ordinary companies in areas outside their core purpose: if you invest directly you get hit with the tax, but if you invest in a blocker, which then invests in the U.S. business, you escape it. Romney’s I.R.A. appears to have employed this lawful escape route, and his campaign has used language suggesting that it has. But that would mean the Romney camp’s claim that Mitt’s tax consequences of investing via the Cayman Islands is “the very same” as it would have been had he invested directly at home is simply not true. (Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul says Romney “gets the same benefit anyone would get from an I.R.A.,” but she did not respond to questions on whether his I.R.A. had used blockers or avoided taxes by investing via tax havens.)

Unfortunately – Romney declined to disclose his Bain Capital holding 48 separate times in financial disclosures.  We wrote about this and you can watch him respond to this charge from a person HERE:

In 48 accounts from Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded in Boston, Romney declined on his financial disclosure forms to identify the underlying assets, including his holdings in a company that moved U.S. jobs to China and a California firm once owned by Bain that filed for bankruptcy years ago and laid off more than 1,000 workers.

Several outside experts across the political spectrum, however, say Romney’s disclosure is the most opaque they have encountered, with some suggesting the filing effectively defeats the spirit of disclosure requirements.

“I have never seen anything like this,” said Joe Sandler, a Democratic Party lawyer who has shepherded candidates and nominees through the disclosure process for 26 years. “Romney’s approach frustrates the very purpose of the ethics and disclosure laws,” he said.

If you watched the video … it’s funny to hear him say that he isn’t skirting tax laws by putting his money in various banks throughout the world that are known for being tax shore havens.  It’s just hilarious.  Imagine if someone told you they were opening a pizzaria with a well known mobster but says … “Yeah – but this joint is completely legit.”  Sure it is.  *wink*.  Coincidentally – Mitt paid 13.8% on his taxes for years 2010 and 2011 where he made $62 million as an unemployed person (his words).

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