Tax Returns

Mitt Romney's income tax returns may contain some surprises that he does not want the world to know about, but they are hardly his only secrets. His biggest secret, the question he has not answered through the entire campaign, the one that bothers conservatives even more than it irks liberals, is this: Does he believe in anything besides Mormonism and money? He won in the Republican primaries because he did not hesitate to do whatever it took to destroy his opponents. Now, his campaign aides are saying, off the record, there is no limit to what they will do to beat Barack Obama.

As pressure builds for Mitt Romney to release additional tax returns, a new poll suggests a majority of Americans agree that the Republican presidential candidate should disclose more about his financial history. A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Wednesday night found that 54% of adults thought Romney should release more than the two years of returns he had already agreed to make public. Still, 42% of those surveyed said they did not expect the tax forms to reveal information that could damage Romney's campaign.

What kind of next-door neighbor would Barack Obama make? If Mitt Romney showed up for a potluck, what dish would he bring? Those are not exactly questions of war and peace, but given the recent neener-neener tenor of the presidential debate (chains vs. shackles, anyone?) they seem almost Platonic by comparison. Peter Hart, a Democratic strategist and longtime diviner of the public pulse, held a focus group Tuesday night outside Milwaukee, seating a dozen women around a rectangular table for nearly 2½ hours of freewheeling, mostly political conversation.

A former Internal Revenue Service agent was sentenced to three years in federal prison for filing fraudulent tax returns for himself and unsuspecting relatives. Albert Bront, 51, a former Santa Clarita resident who has been in federal custody for months, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II in Los Angeles. In addition to the prison term, Wright ordered Bront to pay more than $127,000 in restitution to the IRS. Bront pleaded guilty in January to one count of subscribing to a false return and two counts of assisting others in subscribing to false tax returns.

Add singer Lauryn Hill to the list of celebrities with federal tax problems. The Fugees member and solo artist was charged Thursday with three criminal counts of willful failure to file income tax returns in 2005, 2006 and 2007. During that period she allegedly earned more than $1.6 million, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement. Hill is scheduled to appear in New Jersey District Court on June 29. If convicted, the 37-year-old mother of six faces a maximum of one year in federal prison and a $100,000 fine on each count.

Under pressure to release his tax returns, Mitt Romney gave conflicting signals at the Fox News/Wall Street Journal debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., as to whether he would make them public. At one point, Romney was asked directly whether he would release his returns. He suggested that under tradition, presidential candidates typically released them in April. But he didn't go so far as to say he would actually release his then. In fact, it wasn't entirely clear what he said he would do: PHOTOS: Republican presidential debate “I hadn't planned on releasing tax records, because the law requires us to release all of our assets, all the things we own. That I've already released; it's a pretty full disclosure.

A feature allowing California taxpayers to use their income tax returns to make donations toward arts programs will disappear in 2013. Forms for the 2010 and 2011 tax years had a checkoff box for the California Arts Council as one of 18 options for targeted giving to various state-funded causes. But it won't be an option any longer. The state law that added the grant-making Arts Council to the mix for the two years specified that the box would vanish if the option didn't bring in at least $250,000 from tax returns filed for the 2011 tax year.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, paid $3 million in federal taxes in 2010 on nearly $21.7 million of income derived from a vast array of investments, amounting to an effective tax rate of 13.9%, according to returns released by his campaign Tuesday. In addition, the Romneys expect to pay $3.2 million on $20.9 million of income for the 2011 tax year, for an effective rate of 15.4%. That's substantially lower than the top 35% marginal tax rate on wages and salaries -- and much lower than the rate paid by his political rivals.

Arianna Huffington (Column Right, April 21) chastises public officials (such as Newt Gingrich) and public figures (such as Bill Bennett) for refusing to reveal their tax returns and, in turn, their charitable contributions. "Show us the numbers and we'll be the judge," she says. Isn't this the same Arianna Huffington who, with her ex-husband, Michael, refused to release their tax returns during the race for the U.S. Senate just a few years ago? Better late than never, Arianna--how about releasing the Huffington tax returns for the past several years so we can finally learn just how generous the Huffingtons were in their own charitable giving.

Some investments listed in Mitt and Ann Romney's 2010 tax returns — including a now-closed Swiss bank account and other funds located overseas — were not explicitly disclosed in the personal financial statement the Republican presidential hopeful filed in August as part of his White House bid. The Romney campaign described the discrepancies as "trivial" but acknowledged Thursday that it was reviewing how the investments were reported and would...