Originally published on Forbes.com Oct 7th, 2014
Stories that Mitt Romney may be running for President again in 2016 are propping up, like this one by Colin Campbell. I have to tell you, Romney 2016 excites me. Romney was my favorite candidate in 2012. I’m not saying I voted for him or hoped he would win. He was my favorite candidate as a tax blogger.
Romney caught more flack about his returns than any of the other candidates. It was probably not his biggest problem. He had to deal with Romneycare in Massachusetts being a lot like ObamaCare, residual anti-Mormonism and the vast dog constituency that would never forget Shamus.Then there was that 47 caliber secretly recorded remark he shot himself in the foot with. Still the taxes were a thing, and it happens they were my thing. So here is a round-up of some Romney tax coverage from 2012 that you can use as a reference as the excitement builds.
Some Of It Was Silly
Some of the criticism Romney caught on his returns was on the silly side – like the notion that there was something sinister about him going on extension. I did a couple of posts on that.
Unfair To Knock Romney For Getting An Extension
People Who Criticize Romney’s Extension Are Ignorant Or Hypocritical – The Proportions Vary
Tax Girl, Kelly Phillips Erb, weighed in also even copping to extending her own return.
What Romney And I Have In Common With More Than 10 Million Taxpayers
I also thought it was silly to blame Romney for the carried interest loophole, because he took advantage of it, when it was probably within the power of the President to put a stop to it.
Could Romney Use His Own Return To Call Obama’s Bluff on Carried Interest?
Carried Interest – Any Blame Should Go To Obama And Greens Should Not Care
Once something has silliness to it, I’m bound to add to it. I suggested that Romney might want to look to public accounting to find a running mate.
Romney Campaign Should Look At Public Accounting – Where The Really Incredibly Boring White Guys Are
Then there was my idea of boiling the election into a 1040 smackdown.
Horsing Around
I had a bit of fun with Romney’s Olympic dancing horse. Somebody caught me in a major research failure when I called Rafalca out of the running (or dancing) a bit early.
Rafalca London Olympic Medal Or Not – No Current Tax Savings
Janet Novack noted that a lot of the discussion of the Rafalca related losses in other venues was off base.
Both Left And Right Got The Taxes On the Romney’s Olympic Horse Wrong
Lies, Damn Lies And Percentages
There was a lot of coverage of what percentage of his income Romney was paying in income tax. Ashlea Ebbeling, for example, compared him to other presidents in that regard.
How Romney’s Tax Rate Compares To Past Presidents
David John Marotta, on the other hand noted that when you add his charity to his taxes, Romney is contributing quite a bit in
Romney’s tax returns a stellar example of citizenship and generosity
I always believed that the percentage game was off base, since the real way to avoid tax is to avoid recognizing income at all. I explained that perspective in this piece.
Was Romney A Tax Dodger – And If He Was So What?
One of the biggest tax stories about Romney was that Harry Reid claimed that Romney did not pay any federal income taxes for a decade. That Romney refused to release his pre-2010 returns lent a lot of plausibility to the claim.
I was probably the only tax blogger, that speculated that the real reason not all the returns were being released was that a couple of them could not be found:
Real Reason Romney Returns Not Being Released?
I didn’t think it was very likely, but it was a lot more plausible than you might think. I also pointed out that someone like Romney could end up with a couple of very low tax years, even if he was not really trying to get away with anything.
Some Zero Tax Romney Returns Would Be As Shocking As Gambling At Rick’s
The morality of whatever unspecified maneuvers Romney might have used were discussed by Janet Novack and Kelly Phillips Erb.
Romney Has A Duty To Exploit Every Tax Loophole? Horse Feathers!
Why Romney’s Tax Avoidance Strategies Don’t Deserve Criticism
One of the most plausible explanations for Romney not be forthcoming with his returns was the likelihood that he had engaged in the, by then infamous, Son of Boss shelter.
Romney Returns – Could Son Of Boss Deals Be Worrying Him?
Romney, Marriott And Son Of Boss – For Dummies
And In The End
I found the wind-up of the whole tax drama rather on the lame side. When his 2012 return was released Romney’s deliberately passed on deductions he was entitled to raise the percentage he was paying.
Mitt Romney Passing On Nearly Two Million In Charity – Stupidest Thing I Ever Heard
Rather than release the older returns or stick with the stand that he was not going to release them because it was none of our business, his campaign released a report prepared by PWC that he had no zero tax years since 1990 and the his “Effective Personal Income Tax Rate” EPITR was never below 13.66%. I really thought the report was extremely lame, since it was not inconsistent with Romney having dodged the bulk of his taxes through sketchy tax shelters. A percentage is a fraction. Keeping amounts out of your gross income lowers both the numerator and the denominator, The report did not lower my opinion of either Romney or his campaign. My opinion of PWC took a steep dive. I thought about filing a complaint with Massachusetts Board of Public Accountancy, but I had a lot of other things to worry about.
Romney Accountant’s Letter – Exercise In Obfuscation?
The Way Forward
I will probably not vote for Mitt Romney, but I think we could do a lot worse when it comes to who our next President is. After obsessing about the matter for almost a year, I decided that there could not be anything in his unreleased tax returns that disqualified him from being President or reflected poorly on his character. If I were in charge of the tax division of his campaign – and there will likely be one – I would do a data dump going back to at least 1990 the day after he announces. I would call the strategy “Let’s Throw PWC Under The Campaign Bus”, because anything sketchy in the returns would be blamed on the accountants. He could probably gather together a fairly large group of entrepreneurs of both parties who were convinced to participate in sketchy shelters by prominent firms.
The dog thing is another matter entirely. I saw the response of Dogs Against Romney to rumors of 2016 – Grrr! – Tough to argue with that.