Mitt Romney released his tax returns to put to bed discussions of his wealth and lack of transparency. Instead, they have only spawned more unanswered questions.
Thursday afternoon, the LA Times reported that Romney’s tax returns listed 23 funds and partnerships that did not appear on Mitt Romney’s personal financial statements — the disclosure forms candidates are required by federal law to file with the Federal Elections Commission. Romney filed his disclosure forms in August 2011. The timing of this revelation couldn’t be worse. Hours before a GOP debate and days before the crucial Florida primary, Democrats now have new fodder for demanding additional tax return information from the Romney campaign.
Democrats are using the discrepancies to call on Romney to release all his tax returns from years in which he filed public financial disclosure statements. On a conference call with reporters, DNC spokeswoman Melanie Roussell stressed the importance of these newest revelations, saying they show what Mitt Romney was trying to hide on his regular disclosure forms. Roussell’s charge that the LA Times “found what it looks like he was trying to hide” is based on the fact that the of the 23 funds and partnerships left off the disclosure, 11 were overseas investments in funds in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda as well as the already-notorious Swiss bank account the Romney’s closed in 2010.
Further, Romney staked his credibility on these forms. As Roussell pointed out on the conference call: “This is the form that Mitt Romney has been using for months, and years in fact, since he ran for the Senate, as an excuse not to release his tax returns in the first place.” It’s a potent argument; why trust that one year of Romney’s tax returns are sufficient if they revealed new information? That’s the crux of Democrats’ argument that they now need all returns corresponding to past disclosures.
Politically, hiding offshore investments and accounts is a liability, but there’s also a legal aspect to the discrepancies. “All candidates for federal office are required by federal law to list their assets on this personal financial disclosure form,” explained Roussell. “This is a big deal,” Roussell stressed, “I want to make sure people understand.”
Romney’s failure to include the information about the Swiss bank account could have legal consequences, but only under one condition: if he deliberately left such information off the form, an election law expert tells TPM.
Lying to the FEC is crime, but proving that Romney decided to purposefully omit the information (if he did) would be a pretty high burden to meet. There’s been nothing to indicate so far that Romney did anything more than make a mistake on a complicated government form. But if Roussell’s allegations are correct — and it’s proven that the omission of offshore accounts and investments, as well as investments connected to Bain Capital were left off purposefully, for political reasons — then Romney is in trouble legally. Obviously that’s a big “if.”
The Romney campaign has confirmed that it will be updating the public financial statements to reflect the information on Romney’s tax returns. Spokespesrson Andrea Saul also released a statement stressing that the errors are “of a minor technical nature”:
The inescapable fact is that by releasing over 600 pages of information regarding his finances, Mitt Romney is clearly coming down on the side of disclosure. Any document with this level of complexity and detail is bound to have a few trivial inadvertent issues. We are in the process of putting together some minor technical amendments, which will not alter the overall picture of Gov. and Mrs. Romney’s finances as disclosed in August.
For now, at least, Romney’s tax return nightmare continues.
Ryan J. Reilly contributed to this story.
Pema Levy
Pema Levy is a News Writer at TPM covering the 2012 election. Before coming to TPM, Pema was an assistant editor at The American Prospect where she wrote about politics and the economy.
How could you "accidentally" miss declaring 23 funds? I guess that 13.9 percent rate will change pretty significantly when those funds are factored in at zero percent.
I just have no idea how a bazillionaire goes about getting his returns in. He almost certainly has nothing to do with the process himself. So I wonder which of his secretaries, accountants, and other flunkies involved in putting together that 600 page document will be fingered for the mistake.
Check my Name to Meet Tall people Over 5'9''
tallkiss_com 5'9" is tall? What are you, a munchkin?
Bush couldn't count the cost of the War in his budget and lost $9B cash in Iraq. McCain couldn't keep track of how many houses he owned. Here comes Romney, and he can't even find a competant Accountant to count his money.
What is it with Republicans and keeping track of money, anyway?
Don't forget the Supreme Court Justice that forgot for 20 years to put his wife's taxes on his. Funny how he said it was just a minor mistake; and they get away with it.
The only people who care about this are people who would never vote for him anyway- partisan democrats. Unless Romney admits that he purposely filed inaccurate disclosures- which hes not going to do- it can never be proven that it was intentional. Now Romney can whip up the GOP base by saying that the issues of his taxes is simply a hit by the liberal media. Now he'll never release more tax records and have cover for not doing so. This so called controversy- dislosuregate anyone?- will be forgotten in a week. Nice move Dumbocrats.
bills8259 Interesting man-bites-dog argument there, bills. So pointing out that Romney left his most politically-poisonous investments off his disclosure forms is bad for Democrats? Because it will make the issue of his taxes and transparency go away faster?
Wait...what?
bills8259 And the partisan Republican already hate Mitt. So this only affects the swing voters who determine every election.
Romney needn't say anything. People already think he's an unfeeling plutarch, and this news only reinforces that.
The presumptive GOP nominee still needs to "whip up his base"? Yeah, that worked great for President McCain.
Oh come on the 13.9% tax rate pretty much did it for him, sorta made what the OWS is doing come to light for so many people.
It's legal but come on the people hate this crap especially when they make say $50,000 and pay a 35% tax rate and they are working.
We should demand that Romney release his Form TD 90-22.1. This form, popularly called FBAR, lists all foreign accounts (bank, brokerage, credit cards) that had a balance any time during the year over $10,000. It includes accounts he owned singly, jointly with another, together with accounts over which he had signature rights but no direct ownership. I'm also curious to find out if he participated in the voluntary disclosure programs the IRS has been conducting over the past three years to encourage people to correct past failures to file Form TC 90-22.1.
So the left demands and he ignores and since the demand is coming from "the enemy" he energizes the GOP base which needs energizing as far as hes concerned
bills8259
That's your "energizing" issue? The pitchfork-carrying mob is going to mobilize to protect Romney's "right" to file inaccurate tax forms???
And you're calling Democrats "dumb"???
bills8259 True desperation if Mitt needs the left to energize the right.
isn't there a presidential candidate disqualification button someone can push??
Mitt has already stated he placed these investment with a trustee. I remember 4 years ago Banks across America were going bankrupt. Typically FDIC only insured each account for thousands of dollars.Most investors are informed to diversify their portfolo.The American people can learn some economic sound policies from Mitt Romney.
Herny Teoxon Barnes Other than how to hide your money from the govt to avoid taxes, can you name a few? Also, can you answer this one? Romney and his wife have given $100M to his kids since the 90's as gifts. These ended up in trusts. Question: since lifetime cap for parents to gift to their kids is
$2M, how did Romney nor his kids have to pay taxes on all over $2M?
VOTE NEWT!!! We already went through all his baggage... NO SWISS BANK ACCOUNTS!!! We know the press backing Romney from day 1..means 1thing... Obama chooses MITT for the easy win!! Id rather the old bull in the china closet.....who knows how to strip out the Commie serfdom legislation.. they had planned for us all, THAN the lying DOG who will roll over for BHO,, like that fake warhero Mccain!! in 2012. Hey MSM... wont get fooled again, you can sing that tune buddy! Left/Right paradigm....? ITS OVER FELLOWS!!!
freedom.1.american I suppose the "We" that "knows" the press picking Romney conspiracy theory are those voices that keep showing up when it's past time to take your meds.
freedom.1.american Who is Fellows? Rmoney's accountant?
All you people freaking out about this are hypocrites. There isn't a person alive who wouldn't go out of their way, any way they could, to save themselves money on taxes. If there's a deduction to be had, or a donation to be made that could go somewhere besides the US government, every single one of you would do it. To suggest that wealthy people shouldn't also try their hardest to spend their money how they want rather than throwing it at a hugely unsuccessful and massively wasteful government is so absolutely stupid that I can't believe you're all jumping on this band wagon.
Get a grip you guys. The ONE organization in the world that can absolutely piss away more money than any other is the US government. When I see someone like Mitt do everything he can to use his money in other ways and find as many ways to avoid taxes as humanly possible, I think "Now there is a guy who gets the American tax payer". I'd much rather vote for a guy who cares more about people keeping their wealth and who is loyal to his family than any other candidate. Gingrich? That guy is a dirtbag and even his family says so. Mitts family and people who know him stand by him.
We all agree, this guy knows how to use money to build wealth, and knows how to run an efficient machine and turn around businesses... and isn't that what we need in the highest office?
If this ridiculous media stunt against Romney succeeds, Gingrich is shored up and then you have a serial philanderer with no business experience for President.
I can't believe what I'm seeing. I can't believe how clueless you are! Mitt isn't centrist financially. He's conservative. He's conservative in all the areas that matter.
You watch. Trump didn't jump into the Republican fray because he's smart and doesn't need to. He'll endorse whoever is behind in the next few state races, to shore them up and make it harder for the front runner to survive, essentially gutting the Republican chance of winning a general election. Then he'll run against the guy he endorsed as an independent once his show is over in May, which won't be hard if it's Gingrich. If he sticks by his endorsement goes for the gusto, that puts him in line as potential VP. Great, a philanderer for Pres and a corrupt casino tycoon for VP. However this goes, this is the WRONG train to be jumping on people. You're all hypocrites for doing it
Another intelligent person on TPM! You get the gold star.
sheridan.todd Trump will not run as an independent. He along with Cain, Palin, Gingrich, are in it to milk the system into making more money for themselves. These people are all about maximizing their wealth at the expense of the GOP.
sheridan.todd False! I pay my taxes and I don't try to cheat the govt at all. That's because I'm a loyal, patriotic citizen who loves the country. And, I'm a millionaire and I pay lots and lots of taxes. Probably more than you owe in taxes.
Just because you are a selfish, greedy person, you shouldn't think that everyone else is that way. Lots of people go through life trying to do the right thing. Too bad you are not one of them.
Dumb-da-dumb-dumb-DOOM!
Not only is he a liar about his finances, he is a liar about his record and his ideology, such as it is. He has been left of Obama on some issues, and he is a slightly right centrist masquerading as a conservative. If he wins the nomination and tacks back to the center as expected, his campaign slogan might as well be: "Romney: because he's not black."
It is said that he is a wonk when it comes to numbers..I find it unlikely that he would overlook millions unless it was an agenda item! Mr. romney is a fake...he is not a conservative and has versatile values on every issue!He did erase all his informational email correspondence in Mass at the taxpayer expense!
The picture in the headline shows how much 'work' he has had done...It is beginning to sag under the jaw line!
whimkey
"I'm running for President for Pete's Sake." All you need to know.
@Ortho Stice --- Soon he will be telling us he found the Morman Tablets!
Who's looking a Gingrich's return?
Let me get this straight. Mitt Romney, Mr. Anal Retentive numbers guy, conveniently and repeatedly omits embarrassing material from a financial disclosure form ? Oh, and the guy's got to have a army of high priced professionals who prepare and/or check these forms - they F'd up too?
Unlikely.......
He's a liar - it's that simple.
He lied as a manner of course when Bain would tell companies they'd pay a certain price and then once competitors were out of the running for taking over a company, they'd cut the price.
He lies about the tax rate because he thinks/knows that the "unwashed masses" that not only watch, but believe Fox News (the GOP primary voters), will realy think that 35% paid by corporations plus 15 percent equals 50%. The majority pay zero and some even receive refundble tax credits in the millions of dollars. (I've wondered if that line which I've heard from a few other Fox hosts is coming from Frank Luntz, the master manipulator of language and voters).
He lies when he says they were simply "tryng to turn around struggling companies" when the truth was he was all about getting 50-80% returns on investment because they were breaking them up and selling them and using bankruptcy laws to make millions off of unpaid loans from banks and the unpaid bills owed to creditors.
The question I would ask a voter -- if Mitt was selling you a used car, would you trust him? Their gut tells them no. If he was so good as governor, why didn't he want a second term. This man is going to buy this election and use the most nasty ads ever to do it. Obama's campaign ethos was not about ever going negative against Hillary or John McCain, and even if they have negative ads this time, it will be nothing like what Romney will release on Obama. What Newt's going through is just a preview of coming attractions - false emails saying he asked his 2nd wife for an abortion and dirty tricks. I feel sorry for him.
'C' corps are pass through..they do not pay corporate taxes at 35% they distribute the retained earnings to shareholders! He is obfuscating ! and a liar!
Let’s attempt some inference about Romney’s intentions. First, we know he wished us not to see his tax returns; he still doesn’t. Second, he wants us to see his financial disclosure forms instead. Therefore, it seems likely that the he knows the financial disclosure forms hide information that is contained in the tax returns. Therefore, it seems likely that the financial disclosure forms are intentionally fraudulent.
Proving that with great confidence is more difficult than this. But it is not true that we have no indication that he merely made a mistake.
How much does Romney consider “a minor technical nature?” Remember, this is a man who called $374,000 if speaking income "not very much." Talk about out of touch.
John Harvey Hey when you are making $52,000 per hour $374,000 per year is just chump change. That's just about 7 hours of work for him. Compare to us making minimum wage that would be about $50 per year.
Romney is expecting everyone to acquiesce to granting him special treatment in the presidential race: that alone of all the presidential candidates of the past several decades, he does not disclose his financial activities for the decade prior to the election via tax returns.
Why should he be granted this privileged treatment?
Romney does not even attempt to explain why he should be given special consideration, he just insists that doing the legal minimum of disclosure (rather than what is normally expected of candidates) is all that he will do.
How is that brilliant strategy working out?
He has already been embarrassed into having to release one tax return (the most recent, after his finances had been scrubbed for the race), which he initially resisted doing. His legally required disclosure form then appears to be conveniently missing the information about the abusive off-shore tax shelters, a tax dodge available only to the super-rich.
If Romney had ever faced his desire to be President honestly, rather than assuming it was just one more privilege he deserved in a long life of privilege, he would have realized that full financial disclosure was inevitable, and that he should have done it before even entering the race.
His attempt to have it both ways - to be presidential material while still being a super-rich guy gaming the system and assuming just won't be a problem - is the most revealing glimpse into the inner Gordon Gecko that is Romney's soul.
Carey; Willard obviously thought that he could pull this off but he finally miscalculated & it's going to cost him his only shot ever at being President. From this point on he's just solidifying exactly what everyone knows, that he is just a really, really rich guy that would like to take his Gordon Gecko game to new heights.
BTW, little bush & his pal Dick already robbed us so Willard doesn't even have any new ground to stand on.
leftflank No but he can extend the Norquist Nightmare. Run up the Federal debt while gutting the revenue side to create pressure on Social Security, Medicare, Education and where do I stop? The ground doesn't have to be new. It's pure Cheneyism; continue what your Repuke predecessor couldn't finish. it would be amazing to see how many of the ignorant trolls who pop up once and again actually collect a paycheck and have no pension will vote for these idiots.
CareySub
If I worked on it for a week, I couldn't have described the situation better than you just did, CareySub. Inner Gordon Gecko indeed! If only Mr. Mittens could rise to such a low ethical standard. Power hath its privileges, but even in our modern corporatist state, there are limits.
maximusgrandeCareySub It's Gekko, guys.
What is the legal penalty for failing to disclose?
Ozark; not the same for those who deserve to be penalized the most & therein lies the problem.
The political penalty is pretty damn sweet though.
Ozark Homesteader nothing for a magnate.
maximusgrandeOzark Homesteader I assume Romney spends more on legal than he does financial advice.
Finances or marital, both Romney and Gingrich are both and each MORALLY REPULSIVE.
If anyone cares to notice Obama has moved up from 51% to 54.5% on Intrade % odds to win re-election.Screw the polls. That's highest Obama has been since the Bin Laden killing. Romney is DOA in general election. Obama will not lose to this guy... Oh and CHEERS FOR PEMA LEVY:-)
tjirish34 I'm waiting for Obama to get Romney in a debate where all of America can see that Romney can only recite practiced lines and Obama will not give into the darker impulses and look the fool like Newtron. Romney's about as spontaneous as a fart on a lit match.
tjirish34 True, there is no way that Pres Obama or any candidate can lose to Romney. The guy reeks of slime, so disgusting.
A few trivial highly technical things here and there on incredibly complicated confusing government forms, what's everyone getting excited about?
I want to see his tax forms for the last 12 years. See what he has been doing when he worked. lol
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