Corn on Hardball: What's Romney Hiding In His Tax Returns? 3AUG12 & Why Romney is Afraid to Let Anyone See His Tax Returns 12JUL12

MAYBE it is true that mitt romney hasn't paid any taxes in the last ten years. One way to prove Sen Harry Reid D NV wrong is for romney to release his tax returns for the last 10 years. I think he won't release his tax returns because they will show huge profits from outsourcing American jobs that he sent to offshore tax havens during his days at bain capital. From Mother Jones, and click the link to see the Hardball episode....
Senator Harry Reid ratchets up the clamoring for Romney's tax returns, suggesting that the Republican candidate has not paid any taxes. David Corn, DC bureau chief at Mother Jones, speculates on what could be so awful in those tax returns that Romney is not caving despite the intense pressure.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/48496299#48496299
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/08/corn-hardball-whats-romney-hiding-his-tax-returns?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Motherjones%2Fmojoblog+%28MotherJones.com+|+MoJoBlog%29

Why Romney is Afraid to Let Anyone See His Tax Returns 12JUL12

—By Kevin Drum

Henry Blodget says he doesn't think Mitt Romney is trying to hide anything illegal by refusing to release his tax returns. Rather, he thinks Romney simply doesn't want it to become clear just how carefully he's structured his income over the years. If it did, everyone would learn that:

• This "structuring" of income has likely taken full advantage of things like the ludicrous "carried interest" tax exemption that allows private-equity investors to pay capital gains taxes on income that is actually fees [This tax treatment is one of the most outrageous and unfair elements in the entire tax code. There is no logical basis for it, and it benefits only the richest people in the country.]
• This "structuring" has also likely taken advantage of offshore accounts, the contribution of hard-to-value securities at low valuations to Romney's IRA (whereupon they exploded in value), and other sophisticated tools. These tools are, theoretically, available to anyone, but, in practice, are available only to those with tens of thousands of dollars to spend every year on tax-and-estate planning.
• This structuring, which (let's be honest) is done primarily to avoid paying taxes, will look bad to most Americans, who will know instinctively that it's done to avoid paying taxes and that it's not something they will ever be able to afford to do — and, therefore, will seem unfair.

Maybe. Like Blodget, I also doubt that Romney has done anything illegal, and probably not anything that's even too close to the line. And yet, it somehow seems as though there must be a little more there than just evidence of aggressive tax avoidance. Blodget thinks that would outrage the American public, but I'm not sure I buy that unless there's some pretty shady stuff there. But then again, I'm not exactly plugged into the id of the average American. Maybe Blodget is right.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/why-romney-afraid-let-anyone-see-his-tax-returns