Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Mitt Romney's tax dodges, Part II

Rolling Stone provides us with a helpful guide to Mitt Romney's tax-avoidance schemes. Yesterday we brought you Part I, "Bermuda Shell Game." Today we bring you the second installment in this eight-part series, "Swiss Secrecy."

Thanks again to the good people at RS.

Swiss Secrecy

On his 2010 tax return, Romney disclosed that his wife Ann's trust held $3 million in a Swiss bank account at UBS, which had just been busted by the IRS for abetting criminal tax evasion by U.S. citizens. As part of a $780 million settlement, UBS was forced to turn over the names of thousands of its long-secret clients, who were then offered a partial amnesty: disclose their hidden assets, pay penalties and avoid prosecution. Romney – who had omitted the Swiss account on previous financial disclosures – suddenly came clean. Did he reveal his secret account to avoid prosecution for tax evasion? "He's not quite denied that," says Daniel Shaviro, a professor of tax law at NYU. The record of paying an IRS penalty on the Swiss account could explain why Romney has been so determined to keep his 2009 tax return under wraps.

Read the whole thing here.