Romney: Accounts in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Caymans

Is it really the year for Mitt Romney? While the nation has realized the magnitude of inequalities between the 99 percent and the others, the Republican candidate is himself alone an illustration of the tax privileges of large fortunes.

The tax returns of 2010 and 2011 (an estimation) that he was compelled to publish this Tuesday show incomes (of investment) of $45 million ($21.7 million in 2010) for those two years and a tax rate of only 14 percent (thus $6.2 million).

The former founder of Bain Capital used every available artifice to pay the least possible: bank account in Switzerland (“recently closed”), in Bermuda and in the Cayman Islands (if he is elected, that would create interesting discussions at the G-20 summit about tax havens).

Seven million dollars were given to charitable organizations, $4.1 million of which went to the Mormon Church. “I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes,” he assured during the debate Monday evening. Whatever he says, that’s a lot of income for so few taxes (and completely legal).

His adversary, Newt Gingrich, declares an income of $3.14 million for 2010, which places him in a tax bracket of 31.7 percent. Barack Obama declared $1.7 million (primarily from the sales of his books). His tax rate is 26.3 percent.

However much the American people have sympathy for the rich, Romney exceeds the usual standards. Though he may show up in jeans to rallies and have an un-ostentatious lifestyle (he defends David Brooks of the New York Times), the act that he pays less than the majority of citizens will not work to his advantage in parties strongly attractive to populists.

Bloomberg has made some comparisons: The average U.S. income is $33,048, which is what Romney makes in less than one day. To figure into the “1 percent,” one must have an income of $380,000 — what Romney makes in a week.

A secondary effect: The numbers put attacks against his rivals into perspective. Next to Romney’s investments in Bermuda, the $1.6 million made by Newt Gingrich, “the historian” of Freddie Mac, seems like a trifle.

Obama, who intended to focus his State of the Union address (and his entire campaign) on the inequalities and the “equitable” part of which each American must benefit, could not dream of a better helper.