CHICAGO — This week, Americans were confronted with even more reasons to demand Mitt Romney release additional tax returns when multiple new revelations have made clear it wasn’t only his personal finances he sheltered from taxation. CNN published an op-ed by two tax experts who describe in detail a tax shelter employed by Marriott — and overseen by Romney as the head of their audit committee — to report to the IRS fictional losses exceeding $70 million using the strategy known as ‘Son of Boss’ — “perhaps the largest tax avoidance scheme in history.” And Bloomberg News and the Los Angeles Times each reported on new information about the lengths Romney has gone to avoid taxes around the world, from Italy to California.
On Thursday, Obama for American released a new television advertisement, titled “Son of Boss,” that asks the same questions Americans are asking — questions that are especially relevant given voters’ heightened attention in this election to the fate of their own tax rates, and the central role tax reform will play in the next administration. While the President has fought for tax reforms that would eliminate special loopholes for the wealthiest and large corporations to pay down the deficit and protect the middle-class, it’s clear Mitt Romney is quite comfortable exploiting those special loopholes.
To accompany the new ad, which will follow Mitt Romney through Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio in the coming week, Obama for America also released a memo to interested parties from National Press Secretary Ben LaBolt that poses in clear terms the unanswered questions facing Mitt Romney – and challenges Romney to respond to the American people he hopes will elect him in November about whether he did in fact unduly gain from tax avoidance schemes.
Watch the new TV ad:
And read the memo: http://bit.ly/NbtNlT
Tax return privacy
It is a crime to disclose private tax information without the expressed permission of the taxpayer.
Where is the call for a special prosecutor to investigate the use of information that could only be obtained though criminal activity?
Or is this just a case of using lies and slander?
cook,
Nobody has committed a crime. If Mittens would just follow his father’s example, and the historical example of other nominees, and release more than his most recent returns he could clear up most of the questions. If he’s really got nothing to hide, this is a no-brainer.
If there be no crime, then a civil tort of lies and slander.
Even tho the IRS audits have fallen for most people, the high rollers like the Romney’s would be on a 3 year cycle.
I havn’t heard of CID investagations, or of any tax exam losess, so I guess their returns must have passed muster.
cook,
The point of this story is that Romney should clear up the questions about his own taxes and whether he actually paid any taxes in the 10 years prior to the returns he has released.
The fact that he has insisted that he will not release any more information prompts the question; What’s he hiding from the American People? Romney wants the American people to trust him with their future. The least he can do is trust the American people with a little information about his past.
I understand your position, it’s a lot like that crazy woman demanding the presidents birth certificate.