Home
Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
Latest activity
Members
Current visitors
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Home
Forums
Brown Cafe Community Center
Current Events
Obama's Pension Debacle
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="BrownArmy" data-source="post: 1042339" data-attributes="member: 18225"><p>Oh really? Let's talk about Obama's pension...lol</p><p></p><p><strong><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2012/08/11/mitt_romneys_ira_is_unlikely_centerpiece_of_wealth_and_tax_avoidance/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 15px">Romney built a golden IRA while he was at Bain</span></a></strong></p><p></p><p>"<em>It is one of the most striking elements of Mitt Romney’s financial fortune. <strong>He has used the seemingly bland investment vehicle known as an individual retirement account — established by Congress to help average Americans save a modest amount for retirement — to shield at least $20 million and as much as $100 million from initial taxes.</strong></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Even the lesser amount would put Romney’s IRA in the top 0.001 percent of all such accounts in the country, according to analysis by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute. The extraordinary size of Romney’s IRA has led Democrats to question how he could amass such a fortune given that annual contributions to the fund are strictly limited.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em><strong>Romney has not provided details about how his IRA grew so large</strong>. But Romney associates with direct knowledge about the matter said Bain Capital partners used their IRAs as a pool of investment money, enabling them to make personal investments in Bain deals, many of which earned spectacular returns. Much as a lower-dollar investor might pick mutual funds for an IRA, the Bain partners could make side investments in the firm’s deals and then watch as their retirement funds grew.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Or exploded, in some cases. For example, in one deal for a credit-reporting service known as Experian, Bain tripled its $100 million investment in just seven weeks. This could have resulted in a 40 percent tax on short-term gains for partners who made personal investments in that deal. <strong>But by using funds within an IRA to make the investment, Bain partners would not have to pay any tax on their personal stake until the funds are withdrawn upon retirement</strong>. While Romney has not said whether he used the IRA in that particular deal, his associates said the practice was widely used at Bain.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em></em><em><strong>The short-term capital gain profits “could have been taxed at 40 percent and were instead taxed at zero,” one Romney associate said</strong>, referring to tax rates in effect at the time of the 1996 Experian deal. In many other cases, where longer-term gains could have been taxed at a lower rate, they similarly would not have been subject to a tax until the funds were withdrawn. The cumulative effect — with profits from each success reinvested in the next deal — helps explain how Romney’s IRA could have grown so large, according to his associates.</em></p><p></p><p><em>Still, critics are questioning whether Romney went too far in deferring or avoiding taxes by his use of an IRA, <strong>noting that Congress has put limits on contributions to prevent too much income from being shielded from taxation</strong>. Under current law, individuals typically are limited to contributing $5,000 per year, and companies with a type of IRA known as a Simplified Employee Pension Plan are limited to contributing $50,000 annually to their employees’ accounts. The latter plan is similar to the one used at Bain...</em>"</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>So, yeah, let's talk about Obama's pension.</p><p></p><p>Or his birth certificate.</p><p></p><p>(I always felt, during the GW Bush years, that his most stalwart defenders among the populace were the people that he was actually screwing the hardest. I'm feeling a bit of déjà vu).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BrownArmy, post: 1042339, member: 18225"] Oh really? Let's talk about Obama's pension...lol [B][URL="http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2012/08/11/mitt_romneys_ira_is_unlikely_centerpiece_of_wealth_and_tax_avoidance/"][SIZE=4]Romney built a golden IRA while he was at Bain[/SIZE][/URL][/B] "[I]It is one of the most striking elements of Mitt Romney’s financial fortune. [B]He has used the seemingly bland investment vehicle known as an individual retirement account — established by Congress to help average Americans save a modest amount for retirement — to shield at least $20 million and as much as $100 million from initial taxes.[/B] Even the lesser amount would put Romney’s IRA in the top 0.001 percent of all such accounts in the country, according to analysis by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute. The extraordinary size of Romney’s IRA has led Democrats to question how he could amass such a fortune given that annual contributions to the fund are strictly limited. [B]Romney has not provided details about how his IRA grew so large[/B]. But Romney associates with direct knowledge about the matter said Bain Capital partners used their IRAs as a pool of investment money, enabling them to make personal investments in Bain deals, many of which earned spectacular returns. Much as a lower-dollar investor might pick mutual funds for an IRA, the Bain partners could make side investments in the firm’s deals and then watch as their retirement funds grew. Or exploded, in some cases. For example, in one deal for a credit-reporting service known as Experian, Bain tripled its $100 million investment in just seven weeks. This could have resulted in a 40 percent tax on short-term gains for partners who made personal investments in that deal. [B]But by using funds within an IRA to make the investment, Bain partners would not have to pay any tax on their personal stake until the funds are withdrawn upon retirement[/B]. While Romney has not said whether he used the IRA in that particular deal, his associates said the practice was widely used at Bain. [/I][I][B]The short-term capital gain profits “could have been taxed at 40 percent and were instead taxed at zero,” one Romney associate said[/B], referring to tax rates in effect at the time of the 1996 Experian deal. In many other cases, where longer-term gains could have been taxed at a lower rate, they similarly would not have been subject to a tax until the funds were withdrawn. The cumulative effect — with profits from each success reinvested in the next deal — helps explain how Romney’s IRA could have grown so large, according to his associates.[/I] [I]Still, critics are questioning whether Romney went too far in deferring or avoiding taxes by his use of an IRA, [B]noting that Congress has put limits on contributions to prevent too much income from being shielded from taxation[/B]. Under current law, individuals typically are limited to contributing $5,000 per year, and companies with a type of IRA known as a Simplified Employee Pension Plan are limited to contributing $50,000 annually to their employees’ accounts. The latter plan is similar to the one used at Bain...[/I]" So, yeah, let's talk about Obama's pension. Or his birth certificate. (I always felt, during the GW Bush years, that his most stalwart defenders among the populace were the people that he was actually screwing the hardest. I'm feeling a bit of déjà vu). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Home
Forums
Brown Cafe Community Center
Current Events
Obama's Pension Debacle
Top