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Mitt's tax returns
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Mitt Romney submitted 23 years of federal tax returns to John McCain in his quest for the vice president position during the last presidential election, and requested at least 10 years of federal tax returns from his potential running mates this year. Yet he refuses to release more than two years of his own tax returns in his quest to become president.
Mr. Romney claims he has nothing to hide, and that he never paid less than 13 percent in taxes during the past 10 years. We do know that Mr. McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate over Mr. Romney. We also know that he has stashed away millions of dollars in a Swiss bank account and in the Cayman Islands.
Mr. Romney proposes a tax cut of 20 percent for everyone and to pay for it he would eliminate certain deductions and loopholes, but doesn't specify which ones they are. Experts, as well as others with basic arithmetic skills, can see that his arithmetic doesn't add up. Even if all of the most popular and costly deductions were eliminated, there would still be a significant shortfall in revenue, resulting in an increase in the federal deficit that he claims he can reduce.
Mr. Romney's federal income tax rate would fall to about 1 percent, while the average middle-class family would pay about $2,000 in additional taxes. But Mr. Romney, with his creative tax avoidance strategies, could probably reduce his tax rate from 1 percent to zero by stashing away more money in a Swiss bank account or in the Cayman Islands.
LEROY JAMISON
Uptown
First Published October 2, 2012 12:00 am
