President Obama’s campaign has a new ad that ties in to some comments written by Columbia Professor and Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz today.

Yes – Romney is a tax avoider.  This is a man who famously pronounces “I pay what I”m legally required and not a penny more.”  Well – unfortunately … he’s not even really paying what is legally required according to some experts, but regardless – we know that the techniques that he uses in order to avoid paying taxes … even if they’re legal – they certainly are techniques reserved primarily for the ultra-rich.  In other words – he takes advantage of loopholes created to reduce the tax bill on the super rich in return for financial and other support to Congress.  No matter how you chalk it up – Romney’s marginal tax rate is 35% but we know he only paid 13.7% in 2010 thanks to creative accounting; this man is a tax avoider by whatever means possible.

Stiglitz writes HERE:

But Romney has not chosen to do so. He evidently does not recognize that a system that taxes speculation at a lower rate than hard work distorts the economy. Indeed, much of the money that accrues to those at the top is what economists call rents, which arise not from increasing the size of the economic pie, but from grabbing a larger slice of the existing pie.

Those at the top include a disproportionate number of monopolists who increase their income by restricting production and engaging in anti-competitive practices; CEOs who exploit deficiencies in corporate-governance laws to grab a larger share of corporate revenues for themselves (leaving less for workers); and bankers who have engaged in predatory lending and abusive credit-card practices (often targeting poor and middle-class households). It is perhaps no accident that rent-seeking and inequality have increased as top tax rates have fallen, regulations have been eviscerated, and enforcement of existing rules has been weakened: the opportunity and returns from rent-seeking have increased.

Romney may not be a tax evader; only a thorough investigation by the US Internal Revenue Service could reach that conclusion. But, given that the top US marginal income-tax rate is 35%, he certainly is a tax avoider on a grand scale. And, of course, the problem is not just Romney; writ large, his level of tax avoidance makes it difficult to finance the public goods without which a modern economy cannot flourish.

Romney has a LONG rapsheet for avoiding taxes … let me back that up with some facts:

• Bain Capital is being investigated by the NY Attorney General for tax avoidance strategies which appear to be illegal (source).
• We know that in order to reduce his tax bill in 2010 – Romney claimed to have an “active role” in order to pay 15% on his taxes as opposed to the 35% rate the wealthy are supposed to pay (source); he claimed not to have an active role with the public but at the same time claimed on his tax returns that he was an active participant.
• Romney claims that he didn’t get tax savings from investing money in the Cayman Islands or Luxembourg or Switzerland … all tax havens for the wealthy and for drug lords, terrorist organizations etc.  (source)
• Professor of Law at the University of Colorado – Victor Fleischer says that “Romney has not paid all his taxes under law” (source).  As in – what he has done is illegal.
• Romney claims that he doesn’t want to disclose his tax returns as it would violate his religious privacy (source).  If you believe that – please call me to purchase the yacht I have in Wyoming.
• The NY Times has reported that he used potentially illegal schemes to avoid paying taxes with the Romney family trusts (source).
• We know that Romney oversaw the “largest tax avoidance scheme in history” when he was on the board of directors for Marriott; many people went to jail … Romney didn’t (source).
• Bloomberg reports that Romney “ripped off” Italy when he was the CEO at Bain finding ways to avoid paying taxes by funneling profits through offshore tax havens (source).
• We know that the Ryan plan which Romney supports would reduce Mitt Romney’s tax bill to less than 1% (source).
• The Atlantic points out that Romney pays a lower tax rate than 60% of Americans in 2010 (source) even though we don’t how much he really paid in years prior and his income was in the top .01% of incomes.
• We know that Romney has up to $100 million in his IRA offshore in the Caymans which one can only accomplish through various manipulations of the tax code (source)
• To date – Romney has yet to disclose ANY of his off shore tax haven holdings even in his partial 2010 tax return (source)
• Meanwhile – Romney has all these loopholes and avoids paying millions in taxes that he is responsible for … he is calling for HUGE tax cuts for the rich.  HUGE.  These tax cuts aren’t paid for so the only inevitability is either they add to the deficit or the middle class picks up the bill.  An independent analysis shows that Romney’s tax plan would lead to huge tax cuts for the rich and tax increases of up to $2000 for the average middle class family. (source)

And all of that matters because as Joseph Stiglitz said before HERE – we won’t fix America until we fix income inequality:

“We used to think of ourselves as a land of opportunity, but if you look at the numbers, the statistics … the chances of someone from the bottom making it to the top or even the middle are very limited.  In fact – mobility, opportunity in the United States today is lower than it is in any of the advanced industrial countries.”

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