Romney’s lawyer had admitted that the Democratic accusation that Willard & Wife could have paid a lot less in taxes in 2011. BUT, the returns were manipulated to conform to Willard's claim in August that he always paid at least 13%.
The AP reported:
But, Brad Malt acknowledged, the couple “limited their deductions of charitable contributions to conform to the governor’s statement in August, based on the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13 percent in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.”
Tax experts point out that Romney’s returns are missing a few details:
What’s missing, tax experts say, are the details of Romney’s retirement account from Bain Capital, including investments in offshore accounts in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
It’s a potentially important difference because the simple average treats each year equally — whether Romney earned, say, $5 million in that year or $30 million. It is especially important if Romney paid a low tax rate in a year in which he earned a lot but paid a high tax rate in years when he earned less. The weighted average would give a more accurate picture.
But Bloomberg has a little tidbit to keep in mind:
The second oddity of this announcement is that maybe Romney won’t have to pay those extra taxes after all. You have three years after filing to amend your tax returns and claim deductions that you missed the first time you filed. So, if Romney loses the election, he can amend his return to claim the deductions he skipped and get a refund check from the government.
Romney spokeswoman Michele Davis, asked if he might later amend the 2011 return to claim the deductions, responded "He will not do that." So that's a promise from Mitt Romney. But since tax returns are confidential documents, we won't know whether he keeps the promise.
Larry Campagna, a litigation partner at Chamberlain Hrdlicka specializing in tax, confirmed to me that Romney would have the option to amend his 2011 returns, and that an amendment would be a private matter. An IRS employee who disclosed the existence of the amended return would be committing a felony. If Romney is President, he will face political pressure to make continued tax disclosures. But if he's a private citizen, he won't have to heed calls for more tax transparency -- he can amend his 2011 taxes and nobody will ever know.
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
Maybe this is why Willard wants us to look up and not at his taxes when he said:
”Ha ha. We’re in the stretch aren’t we? Look at those clouds. It’s beautiful,” he said, pointing to the sky. “Look at those things.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Harry Reid points out in a statement from his office"
“That raises the question: what else in those returns has Romney manipulated?”
Remember this President's statement:
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
http://www.politicususa.com/...