Mitt Romney, King of the Tax Swindle

Estimated at $250 million, Mitt Romney’s fortune has been the subject of an extensive survey by Vanity Fair, which revealed an unusual ability to avoid taxes. Offshore accounts and the make-up of accounts – those are the topics arriving at a difficult time for the Republican candidate, who is unable to secure the staunch support from his camp, [such as] the media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

A good American presidential campaign is no exception to the episode of a secret lover or a scandal on the fortunes of one or other of the candidates. The Obama-Romney duel is parting on good foundations. For the moment, no mistress has come down through the ages, but there are many questions about the fortune of the Republican candidate.

Under pressure since the beginning of the year with the multiplication of the “advantageous” tax controversy that he enjoys, Mitt Romney has had another tough week. Already in Jan. 2012, the former governor of Massachusetts was forced like other Republican candidates to publish his tax forms on his website, which revealed that he only paid 15 percent of his income in taxes, which is significantly less than the average U.S. employee.

A holder of a fortune estimated between $190 and $ 250 million, a corporate raider of companies in trouble who built his fortune on the backs of thousands of laid-off workers and a pioneer of outsourcing, the former Governor of Massachusetts, who is 64 years old and was at the head of the Bain Capital investment fund, has reported revenues of $21.7 million for 2010 and $20.9 million for 2011. In total for these two years there, Mitt Romney gave $7 million to charity – mostly in the Mormon Church, to which he belongs – and paid $6.2 million federal tax. Contributions of $3 million paid in 2010 represent a tax rate of 13.9 percent and the $3.2 million paid last year represent a rate of 15.4 percent. He thus benefits in particular, like many wealthy Americans, from the niche tax changes introduced in 2001 and 2003 under former Republican President George W. Bush.

Murdoch Dropping off His Support for Romney

This is an argument once used by Democrats to illustrate disparities of the U.S. tax code. Without naming his rival, Barack Obama did not hesitate to make fun of presidential candidates “that should not be appointed” and that he said are the advocates of both deficit reduction and a tax cuts for the rich. Already, the ABC television channel revealed in April 2012 that Romney had invested millions of dollars in over a dozen offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands when he was head of Bain Capital from 1980 to 1999. This week, Vanity Fair has added a layer with a look into the accounts and offshore obscure Republican candidate.

Officially not dealing with the investment fund, the Vanity Fair article details how well Mitt Romney continues to have interests in at least 12 of the 138 funds managed by Bain Capital in the Cayman Islands, which contradicts the statements of Mitt Romney. Moreover, such investments are kept secret, making the shot evaluation of the actual properties of the candidate simply impossible. Vanity Fair gives a figure of “at least $30 million.”

Also according to his 2010 tax form, he also has a bank account in Switzerland with $3 million in it and other interests in tax havens such as Bermuda, the magazine said.

Misfortunes never come alone. Romney has been a staunch supporter of the Republican camp distance himself from Romney’s campaign. In a message on Twitter, the media magnate Rupert Murdoch believes that Romney has neither the courage nor the conviction to go after Obama, noting for example that the team of professional that surrounds Obama will be hard to beat.

The New York Times reveals that even when Romney recently visited the Wall Street Journal, “everyone stayed hungry, and no one was convinced by the candidate. The newspaper editors began to call him ‘the consultant-in-chief.’”*

*Editor’s note: The following quote, while translated correctly, could not be verified in English.