On January 25, 2012, the Boston Globe reported:
The returns also offered a window into the finances of the rich, complete with a Swiss bank account, investments in the Cayman Islands, and Social Security taxes for domestic help – all well within the law, Romney’s spokesman said yesterday. Romney declined to field questions from reporters about his returns.
[…]
Some tax lawyers suggested that the Romneys may have avoided an obscure tax by investing portions of his Individual Retirement Account assets in Bain Capital funds registered in the Caymans, rather than similar US funds. Nonprofits and tax-advantaged accounts, like IRAs, normally have to pay a tax of up to 35 percent when they invest in certain types of US investments that use debt, such as Bain private equity funds. Romney’s aides said yesterday they didn’t know whether Romney avoided the tax by investing in the Cayman funds and would have to research the issue.
“Far from putting this issue to bed, it raises more questions than it answers,’’ said Matt Thornton, a spokesman for the American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal group in Washington.
Read the full article here.
Published: Jan 26, 2012