# Romney To Post "Summary" Of His Taxes **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 21, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415 "2012-09-21T18:24:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/141 "2012-09-25T07:06:34Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I don’t know about that. How he did it might be complicated, but no one cares about that. That Mr. Average has $80K in his IRA and Mitt has tens of millions is a pretty simple concept, and that he either put in far more than allowed or lied about the value of what was put in is a simple concept also. > > The maximum he could put in over 10 years is $500K total. If he doubled it, being smart, it would be worth $1 million. It is worth $20 million. something is fishy. > > \*\*That’s all it takes. \*\* > > Now Mitt can try to justify it by appealing to obscure parts of the tax code - but I don’t think that would help much. > > BTW the Oped column cited said that it was common knowledge among the rich that the IRS never checked on the value of deposits, so this scam worked well. He can lie. **Thats all it takes.** “oh golly, gee, I had some very speculative high risk investments that weren’t worth very much because they were really long shots but they paid off and golly, I did very well” > [@China\_Guy](#): > > Romney has been running for President for at least a decade if not his whole life, it is) an incredible amount of dumb to use off shore bank accounts and bring the money back during a tax holiday. If this is true, it speaks volumes about complete and utter incompetence. I mean, it’s not like he’s trying to get fuck you money. He’s got fuck you money and enough to spare for at least his close family It wasn’t a tax holiday. In fact you paid a 100% tax on any of your previously unreported foreign earnings but you didn’t go to jail (we would have seen thousands of wealthy people in jail, I’m not really sure why we allowed full amnesty, but this is America and we don’t sent rich people to jail if we can help it). It was the result of the conviction of a banker that was convicted helping people cheat on their taxes by hiding their money in switzerland. His career was over so he blew the whistle on a swiss bank and got 104 million dollars. > **[Former UBS Banker Receives $104M Whistleblower Award](https://thenewamerican.com/us/politics/former-ubs-banker-receives-104m-whistleblower-award/)** > > A former UBS banker received a $104-million award for telling the IRS how UBS advised thousands of Americans on how to evade taxes. By Brian Koenig ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/142 "2012-09-25T08:50:11Z")
> [@Nars Glinley](#): > > He wouldn’t have lost any votes over it just like Romney isn’t losing votes over this, IMO. False equivalence. Obama’s father didn’t start a precedent of releasing birth certificates when he ran for president. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/143 "2012-09-25T13:12:17Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > pulykamell - here’s some reading for you: [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/opinion/the-mysteries-of-mitt-romneys-financial-records.html?\_r=2](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/opinion/the-mysteries-of-mitt-romneys-financial-records.html?_r=2) > > Romney was able to put in $30-50k/year. That must be a SEP, then. This is fine. (ETA: Well, not fine in I can’t see how that becomes the crazy amount Romney supposedly has total in his IRA; just that the $500K max makes sense.)I just don’t understand the mention of Roths in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/144 "2012-09-25T13:39:38Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > A common practice among executives is to put their at the money or out of the money stock options into a ROTH IRA and claim that they are virtually worthless because there is no intrinsic value and no readily acertainable market value. OK, I think I get the Roth angle, now. So that would clear the small maximum set-up for a Roth ($5K-$6K), declaring those options as near-worthless, when in fact, they will have significant worth down the road. And this is common and works? ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/145 "2012-09-25T13:51:59Z")
> [@gamerunknown](#): > > False equivalence. Obama’s father didn’t start a precedent of releasing birth certificates when he ran for president. He named his son Willard too. That doesn’t mean that Mitt has to follow it. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/146 "2012-09-25T14:16:55Z")
One fun thing has come out of this tax return imbroglio. [Wrong Direction’s Disclosure](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSAGR0arBUo) (warning: video contains speedos and pop music. Click at your own risk.) ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/147 "2012-09-25T14:30:14Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > (warning: video contains speedos and pop music. Click at your own risk.) Yeah, you ain’t kidding. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/148 "2012-09-25T17:07:59Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > He can lie. **Thats all it takes.** > > “oh golly, gee, I had some very speculative high risk investments that weren’t worth very much because they were really long shots but they paid off and golly, I did very well” What do you mean he **can** lie as if there was some doubt? He **does** lie. Richard Nixon lied too. I’m not expecting Mitt to come clean or anything - just that the opposition would make the absurdity of his claims so clear that his lying would be pitiful and inadequate. And I’m a realist. If that happened I’d fully expect Fox News to be crowing about his ability to get such good returns means he is even more suited to be president. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/149 "2012-09-25T17:29:12Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > OK, I think I get the Roth angle, now. So that would clear the small maximum set-up for a Roth ($5K-$6K), declaring those options as near-worthless, when in fact, they will have significant worth down the road. And this is common and works? As another poster noted. The IRS is underfunded, noone really likes them, they have no advocates in congress. They lost a lot of enforcement in the late 1990’s during some congressional hearings, the IRS was painted as jackbooted thugs for taking the homes and cars of tax cheats. When the Republicans weren’t able to eliminate the estate tax by calling it the death tax, George Bush fired half the estate tax examiners at the IRS. IIRC these guys found about $20,000 of unpaid taxes per hour but they were fired. As fucking hard as everyone thinks it is to fire a federal employee, the president was able to get it done fairly quickly. THIS is why government employees are harder to fire than private sector employees. The taxpayer gets an opinon from a tax lawyer that acts as a get out of jail card if they ever get caught. The stock options have all sorts of meaningless restrictions on them that the taxpayer argues makes them impossible to value and if there is a value, the best value is zero. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/150 "2012-09-26T00:05:57Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > He named his son Willard too. That doesn’t mean that Mitt has to follow it. Fine, and he could appeal to the principle that he would not unfairly disadvantage his son with an embarrassing name. But, you still haven’t answered my question of what higher principle withholding his tax returns is standing on here. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/151 "2012-09-26T00:12:03Z")
I think it’s manifestly unfair to accuse Romney of doing something illegal in the absence of any direct evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/152 "2012-09-26T00:29:10Z")
> [@jshore](#): > > Fine, and he could appeal to the principle that he would not unfairly disadvantage his son with an embarrassing name. But, you still haven’t answered my question of what higher principle withholding his tax returns is standing on here. The principle of not giving in to unreasonable demands. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/153 "2012-09-26T00:42:06Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > The principle of not giving in to unreasonable demands. Why is it unreasonable when candidates have been doing it for many years, and he coughed up his to the McCain campaign in the last cycle when he was being vetted for the Veep slot? ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/154 "2012-09-26T00:47:00Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Why is it unreasonable when candidates have been doing it for many years, and he coughed up his to the McCain campaign in the last cycle when he was being vetted for the Veep slot? It’s not unreasonable to do it voluntarily. It’s unreasonable to assume nefarious activity because someone chooses not to. Not having to prove your innocence is another good principle to stand on. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/155 "2012-09-26T00:47:19Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > The principle of not giving in to unreasonable demands. No one stuck a gun to his head and forced him to run for president. At this point releasing tax returns is expected - especially given that his father did it. It is like him saying that forcing him to give speeches or reveal the details of his economic policy was unreasonable. Well - he seems to think that last is unreasonable also. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/156 "2012-09-26T00:55:06Z")
I guess it’s important to stick to such a vital interest as “not giving into unreasonable demands” especially when it will probably cost you the Presidency. And we can assume that Governor Momjeans is not hiding anything illegal or damaging, then we must conclude he is the most moral, principled man on earth. Maybe that’s your conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/157 "2012-09-26T01:03:40Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > I guess it’s important to stick to such a vital interest as “not giving into unreasonable demands” especially when it will probably cost you the Presidency. And we can assume that Governor Momjeans is not hiding anything illegal or damaging, then we must conclude he is the most moral, principled man on earth. Maybe that’s your conclusion. Do you honestly believe that if he released his returns that undecided voters would suddenly decide to vote for him? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/158 "2012-09-26T01:10:48Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Do you honestly believe that if he released his returns that undecided voters would suddenly decide to vote for him? Well, yes they just might, if his returns did not show that he took advantage of a tax amnesty for American taxpayers who illegally hid money overseas to avoid the IRS. Or they might, if his returns showed that he did not actually undervalue contributions to his IRA, or undervalue contributions to a family trust. In other words, if his returns did not show those things that those mean people _suspects_ they do, then he pretty much shows the doubters to be nasty, false-accusing meanies. Then he can bask in the glow of righteousness and collect those middle, independent voters. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/159 "2012-09-26T01:22:03Z")
No, I honestly believe that Romney is hiding damaging information in his tax returns that would cause him to lose over 60% of the vote if he were to release them. By not releasing his tax returns I believe he can keep the President’s margin of victory just under 10%. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415/160 "2012-09-26T01:28:12Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > The principle of not giving in to unreasonable demands. Was it unreasonable when he demanded that his opponent’s \*husband \*release his taxes? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-to-post-summary-of-his-taxes/635415.md?page=9)