This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
On Mitt Romney's Millions In Cayman Island Offshore Tax Havens
While the news that Mitt Romney has joined Warren Buffet in the "my secretary makes more than me" 15% tax club has come and gone, even as America appears largely confused or dismissive that Romney, at least on paper appears to be precisely the puppet that Wall Street wants put in charge, we are not so sure how it will react to discovering that in addition to all of the above, Romney also holds a substantial of his assets deep offshore, in the much maligned recently Cayman Islands. As a reminder, it has long been Obama's "tax-policy" to force repatriation of virtually all individual tax holdings held abroad, both legally and illegally, much to the detrimental collapse in the UBS business model. Yet apparently when it comes to potential future presidents, loopholes are quite welcome. Especially when as ABC reports, "the offshore accounts have provided him -- and Bain -- with other potential financial benefits, such as higher management fees and greater foreign interest, all at the expense of the U.S. Treasury." As a reminder: "Rebecca J. Wilkins, a tax policy expert with Citizens for Tax Justice, said the federal government loses an estimated $100 billion a year because of tax havens." But who needs taxes when America can just print all the money it will need to fund its deficit in perpetuity. Just ask the Neo-Keynesians. Perhaps all these are questions that the candidate that so hard is trying to channel Ronald Reagan and so far failing, can finally address once and for all, before he moves into one of his patented Obama bashing subject changing routing.
More from ABC:
Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven.
"His personal finances are a poster child of what's wrong with the American tax system," said Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer who is an authority on tax enforcement and offshore banking.
On Tuesday, Romney disclosed that he has been paying a far lower percentage in taxes than most Americans, around 15 percent of his annual earnings. It has been Romney's Republican rivals who have driven the tax issue onto center stage. For weeks, Romney has cited a desire for privacy as his reason for not sharing his tax returns -- a gesture of transparency that is now expected from presidential contenders.
But tax experts tell ABC News there are other reasons Romney may not want the public viewing his returns. As one of the wealthiest candidates to run for president in recent times, Romney has used a variety of techniques to help minimize the taxes on his estimated $250 million fortune. In addition to paying the lower tax rate on his investment income, Romney has as much as $8 million invested in at least 12 funds listed on a Cayman Islands registry. Another investment, which Romney reports as being worth between $5 million and $25 million, shows up on securities records as having been domiciled in the Caymans.
Official documents reviewed by ABC News show that Bain Capital, the private equity partnership Romney once ran, has set up some 138 secretive offshore funds in the Caymans.
The official spin:
Romney campaign officials and those at Bain Capital tell ABC News that the purpose of setting up those accounts in the Cayman Islands is to help attract money from foreign investors, and that the accounts provide no tax advantage to American investors like Romney. Romney, the campaign said, has paid all U.S. taxes on income derived from those investments. Bain officials called the decision to locate some funds offshore routine, and a benefit only to foreign investors who do not want to be subjected to U.S. taxes.
And the reality:
Tax experts agree that Romney remains subject to American taxes. But they say the offshore accounts have provided him -- and Bain -- with other potential financial benefits, such as higher management fees and greater foreign interest, all at the expense of the U.S. Treasury. Rebecca J. Wilkins, a tax policy expert with Citizens for Tax Justice, said the federal government loses an estimated $100 billion a year because of tax havens.
Blum, the D.C. tax lawyer, said working through an offshore investment vehicle allows the investor to "avoid a whole series of small traps in the tax code that ordinary people would face if they paid tax on an onshore basis." Wilkins agreed, saying the "primary advantage to setting those funds up in an offshore jurisdiction like the Cayman Islands or Bermuda is it helps the investors avoid tax." "It helps U.S. investors avoid U.S. tax," said Wilkins, "it helps foreign investors avoid taxes in their home country, so it's not illegal or improper to set those funds up in a foreign jurisdiction, but it makes it more attractive to investors because it helps them avoid paying taxes on that income."
And so forth.
In conclusion all we can say is that just like our Treasury Secretary, who almost did not get appointed to the job after it was discovered he cheated on his taxes, only to blame it on TurboTax software, the next great tax avoidance symbol will be none other than America's next possible president. Only this time we fail to see how TurboTax - the Offshore Tax Avoidance EditionTM will get the blame.
Which only confirms, once again, that America always and forever, will get precisely the president it so richly deserves.
- 14845 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


No one in there right mind wants another four yrs of this deficit. As a country we will implode.
Mitt, Newt and Obama are really just GMO clones with implants for remote control input, Bernanke sends his days switching between the three. that's why none of them ever appear on TV when he is holding one of his fed pressers...
15%? Imagine next year if (R):
0% Capital Gains Tax Rate
0% Corporate/Trust Tax Rate
0% Dividend Tax Rate
0% Estate Tax Rate
0% Offshore (Bermuda/Guernsey/Cayman) Repatriation Tax Rate
... just add another $2T to the middle-class debt limit, Bitchez! Do I hear seventeen (ahem) nineteen trillion?
This message is approved by the Plutocratic Party.
The federal government has a solution though. If tax havens cost the gubbiment $100 billion a year, they'll just pring an extra $100 billion. Or they'll probably print an extra $200 billion. We want to make sure we didn't underestimate.
Hi. I'm Mitt Romney. I want to tell you why America is so great and it needs me as president. In America the 1% (Me) gets to print money out of nothing and then loan it to the 99% (you) at interest. Since I and the other 1% cronies are conected to the money powerz and help each other maintain our hegemony by overt fraud and corruption (we control the justice department too) we are the "job creators." Since we are so important at creating jobs (mostly low skill minium wage) we need to bribe "contribute" to the law makers to write favorable tax laws so we can have a monoply on all the monopoly money we print and so you (debt surf) will always have a high tax burden or high inflation burden and be helpless and beholden to me (1%). We also like to write laws to restrict you (99%) from having any rights and we love to control and censor all news media to make this arrangement appear normal and favorable to the people while we attack and marginalize people who have become aware of what's going on as "dangerous fringe terrorists." This is why America is the greatest country in the world and it's why I need to become president. As president I will promise to continue to bomb any country with oil, gold, or minerals that can be stolen for out 1%. Please join me in singing our national anthem.
So from your comments, I understand that Romney has a printing press in his basement and this is where his wealth comes from? Gotcha. That certainly simplifies it, because here all along what I thought was that there are some people who like to come home from work and play World of Warcraft for 8 hours - which by the way, is perfectly fine. On the other hand, you have people who are workaholics, etc and decide to forego entertainment, sometimes their health, etc in pursuit of success, their profession, etc. Finally, it goes without saying that the guy who plays World of Warcraft and spends the next 30 years stocking shelves in a grocery store should hate on the successful guy.
No. that's where he hides it, but where it came from is *your* money, assuming you're an american taxpayer.
If it's the Caymans you can bet that it was stolen through offshore transfer pricing, which is a Bain specialty.
If Romney committed a crime, then he should be punished. If no crime was committed, then it sounds to me like we are complaining about the tax code in the US. I agree it is fucked up, and frankly I would love to see the IRS disolved and go to a flat tax.
I don't play video games and I'm not a millionaire but unlike most Americans I have no debt and do have some money from saving and living frugaly. I'm disgusted with the ignorant masses too but surely you see the absurdity of a man like this representing people like me and people who play video games all day and watch the Kardashian channel. He's not one of the 99%. Has no idea how we live. He is only interested in ruling us and having power. Don't you find this the least bit strange and don't you find the nice arrangments that are made for people like him to take advantage of sick? I guess in a corrupt state like Amerika this is the new norm and I should get used to it but I'm going to piss about it til they stop me.
bravo. you must have read his "new American century" white paper he has on his campaign site, if not check it out, it reads like every other globalist NWO manifesto.
"Hi, I'm Mitt Romney,"
Hey Mitt, you sound exactly like George Bush.
Bottom line; is Romney doing anything illegal? If not, I don't see the issue. That said, I full expect the media and dems to come at Romney from the angle of being an "evil rich person". I want to know, why do we hold people like Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan in high regard for making millions by being good at sports, but we are to the point of excoriating people in the business world who become wealthy? I work for a medium sized privately held company and I can say that we got to where we are today due to the very hard work of the original core founding members and CEO.
Again, circling back, I know the point is the perception of Romney somehow being a cheat with his money but from what I am reading, maybe the point should be to change our fucked up tax code?
These lying thieving hypocrite cocksucker politicians! They wrap themselves in the flag and hold out the Bible while robbing the poor behind their backs. Romney is the worst kind. THE LAST FUCKING PERSON America needs. Give Ron Paul the power and watch him return it to the people!
Read McCain's 200 page out-to-get-ya book on Romnalyn:
http://news.yahoo.com/opposition-file-romney-hits-internet-likely-2008-mccain-094643763.html
It's too bad- there is something in the water in South carolina. Ron Paul will get hammered, and Newt Gingrich will do the hammering, as millions of non-educated white-trash crackers support his howls for blood. Albert Pike hijacked the State in the 1850's, and primed it to be the false-flag attacker for the embryonic NWO of Lincoln/Bismarck/Mazzini.
Gingrich knows he will not get the nomination- so he can say all the most bizarre and hate-filled nonsense he wants, to galvanize the Walmartians, who would otherwise vote for Paul. Gingrich is the vote-splitter for Romney, and Paul will be the vote splitter to ensure another 4 years of Obama, the despotic Lincoln of our age, who will "do the right thing" at the 11th hour, and thus obscure his dedication to the dark forces of oppression and tyranny.
What if the South had been allowed to make its own nation in peace? How long could slavery have endured without the North to act as an economic enabler to the South under Union? Could a wiser leader have said, "Go ahead, try it on your own, and you're welcome back anytime you want, but only if you give up slavery."
I'd guess, with advances in machinery and technology, that slavery would have not made it into the 20th century- economic and technological trends would have prohibited it as too expensive and inefficient. At the very worst, the Confederacy would have been ripe for a communist takeover, slavery being the most fertile petrie dish for that noisome ideology. Of course, we'll never know...
But we have a history-repeat going on today, so get used to another 4 years of the worst president in US history.
Interesting point regarding the perceived need for union. Retrospect though, you know? Sure there were many pulling/competing forces, not just a president with an agenda. However, under that theory of a split how would the North have dealt with the immediate immigration of defecting slaves? What we know now is those slaves came Out of freedom. Under a divided nation, they would have come out of bondage, labeled as slaves, and perhaps recveived much differently. Yet for the south they would have lost the battle simply by defection.
I don't see the need to get Mazzini and Bismark into this discussion of Lincoln and your civil war - and sure not about an "embrionic NWO".
The unification of Germany and Italy was in many ways the product of their neighbours - particularly Austria and France.
After a few hundred years of foreign armies treating your small statelets as a chessboard to walk on, you start to think that enough is enough.
Ghordius,what is wrong with a little Mazzini and Pike?We americans need to talk more about it.
I am not a Romney supporter, or Republican supporter, or even registered as a member of any Party. I personally believe the Democrats and Republicans are roughly the same thing, with the Democrats playing the part of fully-Statist/Socialist/Fascist and the Republicans only part way there. ]
And I will say that the ONLY candidate worth voting for in the 2012 Presidential Election will be Ron Paul, assuming he runs.
And I will say that Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, Bachman, Huntsman, and Perry all have their faults, their failures, their weaknesses. . .
But let's be honest. If the lap dog MSM had given HM/HH Barack Obama even 1% of the scrutiny four years ago that they have given each of the Republican candidates in this cycle, NO sane human being would have voted for him. Instead, the electorate was fed the Obama-is-a-Savior message all-the-time and actually bought into the Big Lie. Seriously, we think Romney has problems? Four years ago any thinking media outlet could have disclosed HM/HH Barack Obama's Ayers affiliations, his Alinsky discipleship, his Jeremiah Wright devotion, his Rezko connections. . . But instead the media covered up every possible negative and promoted him as a centrist leader who would bring the country together because of his messianic powers.
So, while I have a hard time, personally, stomaching the Republicans, I am so disgusted by the lies and propaganda of the Leftist/Statist MSM that not only would I never trust anything they put out on the airwaves, I will believe the opposite until proven incorrect. Romney could have 100 Bain Capital issues and, frankly, as between him and HM/HH Barack Obama, I will choose Romney every time.
Romney is the worst of all choices, he will be anything and say or do anything to get elected.
He doesn't even hide the fact.
He is a little hitler in training.
Obammy is a fool and a coward but he doesn't have enough support to do anything now.
I say , better the devil you know than the one you don't.
I am not voting for any of them so what?
The REAL disturbing facts about Romney are his Globalist NWO foreign policy advisors!
An "oh by the way": I realize just how horrible the alternative to BHO was in 2008--seriously, John McCain. The Republicans really screwed that up.
"Rebecca J. Wilkins, a tax policy expert with Citizens for Tax Justice, said the federal government loses an estimated $100 billion a year because of tax havens."
Well, I'm sure the Fed.GOV doesn't think they get their "fair share" from many of us, but I hope I can be forgiven if I take this "lost revenue" estimate of someone from an organization whose sole purpose in life is to "equalize outcomes" at any cost with only so many grains of salt.
By Dec. 1985 the Eurocurrency market was estimated by Morgan Guarantee bank to have a net size of 1,668B, of which 75% are likely eurodollars [5] .
since it is not responsible to any government agency its growth is hard to estimate.
The Eurodollar market is by a wide margin the largest source of global finance. In 1997, nearly 90% of all international loans were made this way .[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurodollar#Market_size
I thought all banks worldwide have to regularly report any USD on their accounts to the NY-FED? And their USD-based assets to the SEC?
there's a mile of separation between principle and practice.
those laws are knowingly not enforced in the eurodollar areas
and how could they be? these all lie extra-juris for a reason.
arm wrestling will not work as US institutions benefit from
the offshore liquidity as well.
then close the "loopholes"...easy peasy lemon squeezy...oh never mind i forget that all the hedge funds are democrat bundlers...all the bankers are demonazi bundlers...bp, so what they gave obama millions...fuck the gulf...ron paul for pres and arrest the rest....oh and try obama for crimes against people with ears...
All true... but with a boot-licking liberal agenda.
Any person looking to run for public office... or who gets a job on Wall Street are for the most part, megalomaniacs and are prepared to play the game to their advantage at any cost.
Leadership and hierarchy do have a place in the world... it just seems that these days, most of the good people are steering clear of politics (Ron Paul one of the few exceptions).
Why does anyone bother to even debate who "wins" in a theatre race if we all continue to lose out in the end anyway?
Really now, is MSM that good at creating the faux interest in this puppet show of largely irrelevant participants? Distraction and misperception to avoid the "Deleveraging Depression" and the Banksterism reality of new corporate rules of law making?
>Not much sense in analyzing party tea leaves at this early point when the whole "race" hasn't started and is likely to change as new puppets (surprise) suddenly appear this Spring attempting to rapidly clinch your swing vote.
So Politicos... go hibernate for another six months; let's get back to the work of "change" we can believe in shall we... like 1st Amendment Rights of "person"<?
The guy who certified Mitt's birth certificate was Harmon Ica... Let's prohibit both Mitt and BO Mama from running...
Ron Paul and VP Jeb Bush Bet U didn't think of THAT one!!
I'm no Mitt Romney fan - not even close - but to the extent that moving this money offshore was legal, he shouldn't be catching any bullshit over it. It is a Supreme Court ruling that individuals should do everything possible to *legally* minimize their taxes.
The real risk here is that Obama can use something like this to whip up a "they must pay their fair share" (whatever that means) proposal that ends up costing most people their shirts, ala the Federal Income Tax Amendment.
In truth, people should be getting their money out of dangerous places where governments are broke. This type of thing can be used as rationale for capital controls. Sheeple are easily led.
I agree with you yet isn't it the over-abundance of laws that create this veil that one can either hide under or piss on? It'd be nice if we sometimes cleaned up the legal ledger, made things a bit more black and white. Yet pipe dream really, the game is "to game" each other so it goes without saying... But I said it so it goes with saying too...
I don't disagree with that at all. I'd rather see most all laws done away with - most of them are for pre-crime or attacks on private property rights (including money). However, I suspect it's unlikely we'll get rid of the unnecessary laws - after all, what are all of those career politicians going to do to justify their existence? Nothing?
Realistically, barring a collapse where we have an opportunity to fundamentally change things, realistically the only thing an individual can do is to play the game. Incorporate yourself - you'll have more rights. Move funds offshore. Diversify your risk using the same tricks that the politicians get away with. That's the only practical option available.
When it was just the poor who suffered, it didn't matter. We could always be Racist or say they were lazy or illegal or just uneducated and "not in the know". But now that the uber-wealthy have gone full-tilt and are plundering the middle class? It brings out the Ricky Ricardo in many, saying, "you've got some splainin' to do!" Robin Leach has taught us all to love Caviar Dreams. Yet not at the expense of my tuna.
Romney! The BAIN of our existence.
In Bain in the membrane...
Reading the comments defending the actions of the plutocrats who have robbed the American public blind by essentially paying NO taxes while simultaneously receiving most of the financial benefit of the taxes collected from the hard working fraction of the US population that is still working has been very illuminating. They have lost the basic moral sense that allows even a four year old to determine that which is right from that which is wrong. They are every bit as corrupt as the evil oligharchs who have run this country into the ground and this entire edifice of theft that we currently live in is maintained only because there are so many of these pathetic wannabe's who will continue to praise the skill of those who are cutting their throats and those of their fellow Americans, economically. They should be objects of ridicule and scorn, exposed, marginalized, and rejected at every turn.
I gave you an uptick a while ago for having the guts to put this point of view out there. I come back now and no one has taken this on. Fascinating.
I am very conflicted.
I want to evade taxes but I don't have the courage to do so. So I pay and hate it, and cry, then go into denial, when I see children the US has bombed riped apart, or soldiers pissing on the corpses of young teen boys and laughing about it. I should not pay taxes. That would express my moral center. But I am afraid of my government and fear for my son who would live with one less income and a mother in prison. We are all conscripted.
And I think others here are like me too. I know, they want to profit, (so do I), but many here drop off the grid and earn a whole lot less so they won't pay tax so they won't be part of the whole stinkin' affair. I admire it and when my son is old enough I may plot how to do the same.
FUCK THEM!!!
Truth is, there are ways to avoid taxes - give up your citizenship and leave. That's the choice you're given: be conscripted or be sovereign.
Where would you go? Simon Black pushes this but it seems you need a whole lot of money to do it and there are problems everywhere you go.
Money's not that big of an issue in the whole context of it all.
Most people take the idea of citizenship and such to be equivalent to nationalism toward their country of birth. If we look at the world a bit differently, the approach to the problem, and the resulting expenses, are less of an issue.
In truth, it's just a giant paper chase. What's a passport? It's a document that allows you to travel. What does it take to get a passport? Citizenship. How do you get citizenship? There are a number of ways, but you can simply be resident in another country long enough, get it through genetic/religious/family background for a nominal fee if you qualify, buy it outright in some places (this is expensive but fast), marry right, etc. Like most things, it's as expensive as you want/need it to be.
It can be as cheap as 3-4 years living abroad and working locally or as expensive as 2 million euros and a passport in 6 months. There's a huge spectrum. It's all about acquiring the right paperwork - there's a huge range of expense and/or time.
Nonetheless, no matter how you look at it, if all your money, your citizenship, your residence, your property, etc are in one location, you're subject to the tyranny (or justice) of that location. Period. You're not risk diversified.
If everyone had multiple citizenships, either we'd end up with one world tyrannical government as the only means to stop liberty or we'd end up with nation-states that have to be more liberty-loving or risk losing their tax base. All of this for paperwork...
nationality is for the common people. borders are the new form of landed serf enclosure.
the robber barons are the ones that can esacpe it at will with their offshore domiciliations.
-duplicate-
Interesting blog. It would be great if you can provide more details about it. Thanks you. Sohbet Chat Thanks for admin.nice sharing.very nice..
Torna