This could be big. TPM is reporting that Senator Carl Levin (D. Mi.), a top expert in tax avoidance strategies, is questioning whether Romney's Swiss Bank account was precisely that.
Levin may well know more about tax avoidance strategies than anybody in Congress. In his capacity as the Democrats’ top investigator he’s has made extensive inquiries into the techniques businesses and individuals use, including overseas havens, to hide their money from the IRS. And what Romney’s revealed so far troubles him.
“I saw in the paper this morning that the spokesperson for the Romney campaign said that it was just an ‘ordinary’ bank account in Switzerland,”
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“Folks, we’ve done a lot of research. We went after UBS in my subcommittee. We have seen abuses by American wealthy folks trying to hide from Uncle Sam, putting their money in Swiss bank accounts and bank accounts in other tax havens,” Levin said. “There was a period when the IRS said ‘OK, come on in, pay your taxes on your Swiss accounts, and you won’t have to pay any penalty.’ Thirty-three thousand people, I believe, showed up in the last couple years to pay their taxes…. And the spokesperson for the Romney campaign says it was just an ordinary bank account in Switzerland that Mrs. Romney had. There is no such thing as an ordinary Swiss bank account. Now, there may be a few exceptions where you’ve got Americans who are living in Switzerland who have bank accounts, but as far as I know, Mrs. Romney was not living in Switzerland.”
Senator Levin says that Romney should make his earlier income tax return available.
This needs to become a big issue. There is no reason for a Swiss Bank account. And as Senator Levin says, "There is no such thing as an ordinary Swiss bank account."
Romney is very vulnerable on this. By his 2010 return, Romney had santized many of his practices.
If Levin's suspicions are correct, Romney will fight forever to avoid disclosing earlier returns.
There's "gold" in those tax returns. Gold for us, anyway.
What's Romney hiding?