Mitt Romney has millions of dollars invested in funds set up in the Cayman Islands, according to an ABC News report.
ABC said it had reviewed “official documents” that show the presidential hopeful has up to $8 million in at least 12 funds registered in the Cayman Islands, as well as another investment worth between $5 million and $25 million.
The records also show that Bain Capital, the private-equity firm at which Romney was once an executive, has “set up some 138 secretive offshore funds in the Caymans,” according to ABC.
Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul sent out a statement reiterating that the off-shore funds are taxed the same as if they were established in the U.S., and saying that the accounts are not “tax havens.”
While the ABC report cites an anonymous spokesman for the Romney campaign, who said the candidate follows all domestic and foreign tax laws, the former Massachusetts governor was already fighting the perception that his interests are more aligned with wealthy individuals and powerful corporations than with middle-class Americans.
Romney has been under fire from his GOP rivals for not releasing his tax returns, accompanying speculation that he likely pays a lower rate than most working Americans.
On Tuesday, Romney confirmed this, saying he “probably” pays a tax rate of about 15 percent because most of his income comes from investment interest.
At Monday’s debate in South Carolina, rival Rick Perry directly challenged Romney to release his taxes, and Newt Gingrich has said they should be released before the South Carolina primary so voters there have the full story on all of the candidates.
Gingrich, who told reporters on Wednesday that his income was taxed at 31 percent, said he will be releasing his taxes Thursday.
(Source: The Hill)
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6 Responses
ABC has gone ahead and committed Terrorist Journalism with what they have “reported” all day. They are as unreliable as any other socialist liberal left wing party hack rag.
How come they haven’t reported and demanded that Obama show us his college transcripts? How come they are quiet on the Timothy Tax Cheat Geithner?
Ah fire zul zey trefin!!
As long as he pays taxes on it, it’s perfectly legal for an American to have an account overseas.
Private equity firms like Bain very often have some of their investment funds set up in so-called “tax-neutral” locations like the Caymans. This is not a tax play for US investors, since these entities are generally flow-thorugh anyway, so any US investors would have to pay the same tax as if they were invested in domestic funds. The main reason for using the Caymans is for non-US investors who don’t want to have to go through the bother of having the income reported in the US, and possibly then needing to file US returns, even if there is no US tax liability.
As a former high-level executive in a private equity firm, Romney would often have invested – and sometimes have been required, under the terms of the fund agreements, to invest – in certain of the firm’s funds, whether foreign or domestic. One of the reasons firms sometimes insist that their executives invest in the funds is to reasure other investors that the executives at the firm managing the fund has the same interests as the other, outside, investors – the logic being that if the executive’s own $$$ is in the fund, of course he’ll want to make sure that the fund does as well as possible. Referring to such investments as “secretive offshore funds” as the ABC report does is simply sensationalistic yellow journalism.
an Israeli Yid
What about obama’s investments through crook friends like soros???Huh
yes NUMBER 4 I AGREE AND WOT EXACTLY IS WRONG WITH HAVING MONEY ABROAD AT LEAST IT SHOWS HE KNOWS HOW TO MAKE MONEY
#5: More important: does he know how to use the caps lock key?