The Vanity Fair Article by Nicolas Shaxson that hit the internet the other day dropped a real bomb into the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney. It kind of torpedos any thoughts Mitt had of continuing to portray himself as Mr. Middle America.
Not that there is much of a financial breadcrumb trail when it comes to Mitt's money. He's pretty secretive about that sort of thing. Here are a few highlights from the Vanity Fair article to whet your appetite.
- There is a Bermuda-based entity called Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd., which has been described in securities filings as “a Bermuda corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt Romney."The director and president of this entity is R. Bradford Malt, the trustee of the blind trust and Romney’s personal lawyer.
- Though he left Bain Capital in 1999, Romney has continued to receive large payments from it—in early June he revealed more than $2 million in new Bain income. The firm today has at least 138 funds organized in the Cayman Islands, and Romney himself has personal interests in at least 12, worth as much as $30 million
- In 2010 and 2011, Mitt and Ann paid $6.2 million in federal tax on $42.5 million in income, for an average tax rate just shy of 15 percent, substantially less than what most middle-income Americans pay. Romney manages this low rate because he takes his payments from Bain Capital as investment income, which is taxed at a maximum 15 percent, instead of the 35 percent he would pay on “ordinary” income, such as salaries and wages.
Oh, did I mention that Mitt has a $3 million dollar Swiss bank account ? It's a little tacky to be looking for tax loopholes when you are running for President and trying to identify with ordinary Americans. Don't you agree?
Shaxson has done a great job of investigative reporting. It just gets juicier and juicier. You really ought to go on over to the Vanity Fair Website and read the whole thing for yourself.
H/T selfdeprecate.com for the graphic
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