Romney’s Federal Disclosures Missed 26 Accounts

The vast fortune of presidential candidate Mitt Romney is putting him under withering fire just one day before the most important vote so far in the Republican primary calendar.

Discrepancies between Romney’s tax returns and the financial disclosure he filed with the Federal Elections Commission when he started his run for the White House last year are raising new questions about whether he has hidden huge sums from the public, claims rival Newt Gingrich.

On federal disclosure documents Romney said he was not aware of such accounts, but his own signed tax return filed with the IRS and released publicly shows that Romney was aware he had more than two dozen foreign accounts.

During his recent CNN debate in Jacksonville, Romney said he was not knowledgeable about the foreign accounts or why his money was deposited there, since he had given control over his investments to a “blind trust.”

“Governor Romney’s taxes are like an onion,” Gingrich’s communications director, Joe DeSantis, charged on Monday, 24 hours before the Florida primary. “The more layers you peel back, the stronger the aroma.

“The people of Florida – indeed, the people of the United States – deserve answers to the questions raised by his secret network of hidden foreign bank accounts and shady tax accounting procedures.” 

Romney’s campaign has claimed the omissions were “trivial.” His spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, called it “a minor discrepancy” and said the former Massachusetts governor would be amending his FEC filing to include the information.

Among the new questions raised:

• Why does Romney need to squirrel money away in foreign banks, best known for their ability to hide income from the taxman?

• Why does he claim he provides “services” to his former company, Bain Capital, thus allowing him to pay reduced taxes, at the same time he says he retired from the company more than a decade ago?

• Is the barrage of vicious attack ads that he has launched against Gingrich, in effect, being funded by government bailout money given to his biggest donor, Goldman Sachs?

“Every time he takes a step toward transparency, new questions emerge,” DeSantis said in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.

“Why does an American citizen even need a Swiss bank account? There are plenty of banks here in the U.S. He says he pays taxes on everything and that’s great. But why does he need to place this money overseas in the first place?

“We all know that foreign accounts are usually used to obscure something, so we have to ask, what is it he is trying to hide?

“Putting it simply, it looks like he is trying to game the system.”
Questions were first raised by the Los Angeles Times last week, which compared Romney’s tax returns to his filings with the Federal Elections Commission. 

The paper discovered at least 23 overseas accounts on his tax return that were not included on his financial disclosure forms.

Among his assets were funds based in what the Times called “low-tax foreign countries such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg.”

Then The Wall Street Journal raised the question of whether Romney should be entitled to pay 15 percent tax on money he earned from “services” to Bain, when he had previously claimed he had retired from the company in 1999.

A Romney campaign official admitted to the Journal that the form was completed using “boilerplate language” and Romney had not actually provided any new services to Bain. The official said that under complex tax laws, “you can have it both ways,” but admitted that “from a consistency standpoint” the situation looked odd.

“In the complex accounting of Mr. Romney's income, that could land him with a bill for back taxes,” the Journal reported.

DeSantis told Newsmax, “If you just look at the failure to disclose foreign bank accounts in his FEC report, you have to wonder why. There seems no good reason why any lawyer worth his salt would think you don’t need to include these assets.”

Romney had already come under attack from the non-profit Sunlight Foundation which advocates for open government. Editorial Director Bill Allison said failing to tell everything defeats the purpose of disclosure reports.

DeSantis said if that omission was the only issue concerning Romney’s finances he could accept his word. However, he said, it was “part of a pattern,” with too many other issues raised, such as whether he is entitled to a lower rate for his work for Bain, and his acceptance of $367,000 in campaign donations from Goldman Sachs, which received billions in bailout money.

“You have this perverse situation where this company received taxpayer money and is now donating to Romney to fund his attack ads.

“This comes at the same time that he is finding clever ways to reduce his own taxes, which in turn raises real suspicions even in such a respected conservative newspaper as The Wall Street Journal,” said DeSantis, who called Goldman Sachs “the poster child for crony capitalism.

“The American people, and Republican voters in particular, know about the grotesqueries of Mitt Romney’s tax situation, his unwillingness to be completely transparent and his general attitude of gamesmanship when it comes to disclosing his sources of income,” added DeSantis.

“He treated the FEC in the same way he treats the taxpayer – looking for every loophole he can.”

Read more on Newsmax.com: Romney’s Federal Disclosures Missed 26 Accounts
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Romney plan raises taxes on poor families !!!

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Mitt Romney's tax plan would increase taxes on low-income families while cutting taxes for the middle-class and the rich, according to an independent study released Thursday.


On average, households making less than $20,000 would see their taxes increase by more than 60 percent, said the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research group that studied the Romney plan.


Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 would get small tax cuts, averaging 2.2 percent, or about $250, the study said. People making more than $1 million would get tax cuts averaging 15 percent, or about $146,000.


"Virtually everybody with a big income is getting a tax cut," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.


Overall, Romney's plan would reduce tax revenues by $180 billion in 2015, adding to the federal budget deficit, the study said. Romney's campaign disputes the estimate, saying tax cuts in the plan would help improve the economy, leading to more revenue.


Fresh off a slim victory in the Iowa caucuses, Romney is the front-runner for the GOP nomination for president. His tax plan is less sweeping than those proposed by some of his rivals. He says he will push for "a fundamental redesign of our system." But initially, his plan maintains the current tax rates while cutting corporate taxes and reducing taxes on investments.


Romney's plan would cut the top corporate tax rate form 35 percent to 25 percent, eliminate investment taxes for the middle class and make permanent a massive package of tax cuts first enacted under President George W. Bush.


Romney would also repeal tax increases on the wealthy that were enacted as part of President Barack Obama's health care package. His plan, however, would allow some tax cuts enacted under Obama to expire.


The Obama tax cuts, first enacted as part of the massive economic stimulus package passed in 2009, targeted low-income families with children, including many people who don't make enough money to pay any federal income taxes. They included an expanded tax credit for college students, a more generous Earned Income Tax Credit for families with three or more children, and a more generous child tax credit for low-income families.


Like the Bush tax cuts, the Obama tax cuts are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. Romney's campaign says letting the Obama tax cuts expire doesn't amount to a tax increase.


"Mitt Romney has not proposed raising taxes. In fact, he laid out a blueprint for governing that includes dramatic spending cuts to reduce the deficit and pro-growth tax policies that permanently extend the Bush tax cuts, dramatically cut the corporate tax rate to create jobs, and deliver real tax relief to middle-income taxpayers," campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.


Other GOP candidates have called for more sweeping tax plans. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry have both called for versions of the flat tax, in which all income is taxed at the same rate. Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania has called for reducing the number of tax brackets from six to two.


Previous studies by the Tax Policy Center have found that plans by Gingrich and Perry would result in big tax cuts for the wealthy, reducing tax revenue by billions each year. The center has not yet done a comprehensive analysis of Santorum's plan, though Williams said one is planned.


The Tax Policy Center is a research group formed by two Washington think tanks, the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. Its researchers regularly testify before Congress on tax policy and its analyses during the 2008 presidential campaign were widely circulated.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MONEY PIT... GREAT LITTLE ONE MINUTE VIDEO !!! WATCH AND SHARE...

Do Illegal Immigrants Pay Taxes ???

HT~ Roy Germano, Ph.D.

YES !!! They generally pay taxes the same way you and I pay them, but without access to most of the benefits that normally come with being a taxpayer.

How they pay
Income Tax: Every time you receive a paycheck, you probably notice that something is missing. That’s because your employer automatically withholds federal, state, and local income taxes and Social Security and Medicare taxes. Immigrants also have money automatically deducted directly from their paychecks —even those who are here illegally. But how? Well, the Social Security Administration estimates that 75% of undocumented immigrants are actually on formal payrolls and are paid by check just like anyone else. They get on the payroll by using fake social security numbers or social security numbers of the deceased, which are easily available from counterfeiters for a couple hundred dollars.
Sales Tax: Every time you buy something, you pay sales tax. That money goes to state and local governments. Staying at a hotel or renting a car, you pay state and local taxes. If you fill up your gas tank, you automatically pay state and federal gasoline taxes. If you buy liquor or cigarettes, you automatically pay various local, state, and federal excise taxes. Immigrants —legal and illegal —all buy things, and thus pay these taxes as part of their purchase.
Property Tax: Local governments also collect property taxes, which are a percentage of the value of one’s home and fund services like schools, certain medical services, and police and fire stations. Immigrants —legal and illegal —pay these taxes directly if they own a home, or indirectly if they rent.

Possible instances of overpayment
Illegal immigrants pay into Social Security via automatic payroll deductions, but they can never claim Social Security benefits because they are here illegally and because their Social Security numbers are fake. It’s estimated that undocumented immigrants pay about $7 billion per year in Social Security taxes that they will never be able to reclaim.
Most Americans get tax refunds at the end of the year. Illegal immigrants don’t get refunds unless they file, which many don’t do because they fear deportation. When a refund is owed but not paid out, this is free money for the government. And according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, about half of Americans are ultimately exempt from paying income tax due to low income levels and as a result of deductions and credits. Many low-income taxpayers pay marginal amounts if they do have to pay. As a result of their low income levels, most illegal immigrants would naturally fall into either of these categories. But because many do not file out of fear of being deported, they are never refunded money that was automatically withheld from their paychecks.

Possible instances of underpayment
Undocumented immigrants —and immigrants in general —are more likely than the average citizen to work in the informal or cash economy because these types of jobs are often the least desirable, most unstable and inconsistent, and lowest paid. Informal and cash jobs create big incentives not to claim cash income —undocumented immigrants and citizens alike find these incentives compelling. Most waiters and bartenders, for example, don’t claim and pay taxes on cash tips (or if they do, it’s usually just a small percentage). The high school student down the street usually doesn’t pay taxes on money earned from mowing your lawn or shoveling your driveway. Legally speaking, they’re supposed to claim this income. But something important to keep in mind: incomes of workers in the informal economy are generally so low that most would ultimately be exempt from paying income taxes or have extremely low tax liability even if they did file and claim cash income.

Eligibility & ineligibility for public services
As taxpayers, most of us are eligible for an array of social safety nets like food stamps and unemployment insurance. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act barred illegal immigrants from receiving any welfare benefits except in medical emergencies. It also barred legal immigrants from eligibility for welfare benefits during their first 5 years in the country. So, no, illegal immigrants do not exploit welfare services quite simply because they are not eligible to exploit them.
In Plyler v. Doe (1982), the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to deny undocumented immigrants K-12 public education. Denying education would not only be crippling to the immigrants themselves, but would have broader social impacts. But regardless, by directly or indirectly paying property taxes, undocumented immigrants pay into public education. In general, immigrants benefit from police service, firefighters, national defense, parks, and other public goods. But again, the taxes they pay contribute to paying for these services.
American-born children of undocumented immigrants are eligible for welfare benefits like Medicaid. But it’s important to remember that the recipients of these benefits are children that the 14th Amendment has deemed full citizens of United States.

Are illegal immigrants a net drain on the system?
Although certain news programs and partisan research institutes would like you to believe otherwise, there is no simple answer to this question. At the federal level, it appears that undocumented immigrants pay in slightly more than they take out. Figures vary greatly at the state and local levels. Areas with higher concentrations of undocumented immigrants, for example, spend more educating and providing emergency healthcare to undocumented immigrants than areas with lower concentrations. But this is not because undocumented immigrants are out to evade taxes and milk the system —as we learned above, most pay sales, property, and income taxes automatically and are ineligible for the vast majority of social services. Rather, the reason undocumented immigrants may take out more than they contribute has mostly to do with their status as low wage earners. Even if they use the same amount of public services as wealthier households, low-income households (be they made up of citizens or immigrants) are generally a net drain on public finances because our regressive system requires them to pay less income tax and by virtue of having less purchasing power, they pay less sales and property tax.

Your Tax Dollars HARD at Work: What effect does a gay man's penis size has on his sex life and general well-being !!!

The federal government helped fund a study that examined what effect a gay man's penis size has on his sex life and general well-being.
The study was among several backed by the National Institutes of Health that have come under scrutiny from a group claiming the agency is wasting valuable tax dollars at a time when the country is trying to control its debt. This particular research resulted in a 2009 report titled, "The Association Between Penis Size and Sexual Health Among Men Who Have Sex with Men."
The study reported, among its findings, that gay men with "below average penises" were more likely to assume a "bottom" sexual position, while those with "above average penises" were more likely to assume a "top" sexual position. Those with average penises identified themselves as "versatile" in the bedroom.
Though it's difficult to trace exactly how much federal funding went to the project, the study was one of many linked to an $899,769 grant in 2006. The grant was administered by NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse, and went first to a group called Public Health Solutions and a researcher with the National Development and Research Institutes before going to individual researchers.
Those researchers then compiled data from a survey of more than 1,000 gay and bisexual men at events in New York City for the gay community.
"This country is broke and we cannot spend money on this kind of stuff," said Andrea Lafferty, president of the Traditional Values Coalition, which drew attention to the report as part of a six-month investigation into NIH grants for examples of "institutional waste."
"We're spending money on wacky stuff," Lafferty said.
But one of the researchers involved with the report told FoxNews.com that NIH funding was only used to help "analyze and write up" data that had already been collected without the use of taxpayer funds.
"The data were not collected using taxpayer funds," Jeffrey Parsons, a professor with Hunter College, said in an email. "NIH funds were not used to measure anyone's penis size."
He said part of the 2006 grant went toward the primary author's post-survey analysis as part of his postdoctoral fellowship to "better inform sexual health promotion efforts."
Parsons took issue with Lafferty's description of the grant.
A Traditional Values Coalition release stated that at least $9.4 million went to a 10-year study that included the penis-size research -- but Parsons said it appears that references a much broader "post-doctoral training program" of which the penis-study funding was a "small" part.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/18/nih-backed-study-examined-effects-penis-size-in-gay-community/#ixzz1SVmdKi00