There appears to be a good reason why Willard did not want to release his tax returns. He knew that they would be examined and that truths would emerge which would damage his candidacy. He was correct.
TPM:
"In 2010, Romney carried over $4.9 million in capital losses from 2009. But as tax lawyer Ed Kleinbard told reporters during a Tuesday conference call organized by the DNC, 'that means he paid no tax on any of his capital gains in 2009, including tax on his carried interest in 2009' That's not necessarily because Romney actually lost money in 2009 either. "
Almost all of Willard's income is from capital gains. And he paid no taxes on those capital gains in 2009 (again not necessarily because he lost money then). Due to the amount he likely made, his tax rate would be truly minute ( for example, he may have actually made $10 million in capital gains, paid no tax on that, and paid tax only on his speaking income which could have been only a couple hundred thousand dollars).
A person who made ten million dollar and has an estimated worth of $250 million paying a near zero percent tax rate only 3 years ago. Couple this with all of his toxic comments and we can see how this complements the picture we already have of him. This is very damaging.
10:49 AM PT: To me, what makes this so damaging is that he has already shown himself to be heartless / unable to relate to the rest of us who are not one percenters.
$370,000 is only a little bit of money.
He likes to be able to fire people.
Corporations are people.
He is unemployed.
He knows what it is like to be afraid of getting a pink slip.
His record at Bain: buying companies, firing the workers, looting them, leaving the workers without a pension, and the government has to replace the pensions.
The other thing is that his policies are designed to benefit himself and people like him.