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Romney testified to the commission he traveled to Massachusetts for Staples Board meetings
(Political Ticker) – The ballot commission document is likely to prompt more questions about Romney’s ties to Bain after his move to Salt Lake City. As part of its ruling in favor of Romney’s residency eligibility, the panel noted Romney testified to the commission he traveled to Massachusetts where he sat on the board of one notable Bain-related company, the office supply chain, Staples.
During his ballot commission testimony, when asked whether he continued to serve on boards while working on the Olympics, Romney answered: “Yes.”
“I immediately resigned from the board of Sports Authority located in Florida, feeling it could present a conflict of interest with my Olympic responsibilities and of course the travel could be challenging as well. I remained on the board of the Staples Corporation and Marriott International, the LifeLike Corporation. And I remained as a corporator of the Belmont Hill School.”
Asked specifically about the Staples board, Romney said there were four to five meetings a year and he returned to Massachusetts “for most of those meetings. Others I attended by telephone if I could not return.” The GOP contender has often touted his involvement in establishing Staples as part of his work at Bain.
Massachusetts Ballot Panel Allows Race By Republican
(NY Times) June 26, 2002 – In 1999 and 2000, Mr. Romney paid state taxes as a Utah resident and as either a part-time resident or a nonresident of Massachusetts. He also received a $54,500 property tax break for a home in Park City, Utah, a discount for people who claim a primary residence in Utah.
The Democrats also pointed out that Mr. Romney had obtained a Utah driver’s license and had bank statements and checks with his Utah address on them.
Until early June, Mr. Romney said that he had paid his taxes as a Massachusetts resident while in Utah. Later he acknowledged that in April, after deciding to run for governor, he amended his 1999 and 2000 tax returns to say he was really a Massachusetts resident.
Mr. Romney told the Ballot Law Commission that the mistake had been called to his attention late last year and that efforts to amend the returns were under way before he became a candidate. He suggested that his accountants had made an inadvertent filing mistake, which he did not notice at the time.
Romney: ‘I Don’t Recall’ Coming Back For Mass. Business Meetings In 2002 (VIDEO)
(TPM) – Mitt Romney said that he had no recollection of returning to Massachusetts for business meetings in 2002 following his departure from Bain Capital to head the Olympics in Salt Lake City.
“I left Bain in February of 1999,” Romney said in an interview with CBS’s Jan Crawford on Friday evening. “People can point out how – I was in Salt Lake City for three straight years. I don’t recall even coming back once to go to a Bain or management meeting. We were, I was out there running the Olympics and it was a full time job, I can tell you that.”
See my recent diary – Romney Can’t Help It – His Faith and Social Darwinism.
Looks to me he uses this opportunity to do Bain’s business in Massachusetts …Romney now often criticizes his opponents for being Washington insiders, in the 2002 video he touts his Washington connections.
More below the fold …
Romney as Audit Chair Saw Marriott “Son of BOSS Shelter” Defy IRS
(Bloomberg) – The candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, whose full name is Willard Mitt Romney, was named after the chain’s founder, J. Willard Marriott, a friend of his father. He joined the company’s board in 1993, and has served on it for 11 of the past 19 years, including six as chairman of the audit committee.
During Romney’s tenure as a Marriott director, the company repeatedly utilized complex tax-avoidance maneuvers, prompting at least two tangles with the Internal Revenue Service, records show. In 1994, while he headed the audit committee, Marriott used a tax shelter known to attorneys by its nickname: “Son of BOSS.”
A federal appeals court invalidated the maneuver in a 2009 ruling, siding with the U.S. Department of Justice, which called Marriott’s transaction and attempted tax benefits “fictitious,” “artificial,” “spectral,” an “illusion” and a “scheme.” Marriott had argued the plan predated government efforts to close such shelters.
Employing another strategy, Marriott legally avoided hundreds of millions of dollars in income taxes thanks to a federal tax-credit program criticized and allowed to expire by Congress. Marriott has also shifted profits to a Luxembourg shell company. During Romney’s years on the board, Marriott’s effective tax rate dipped as low as 6.8 percent, compared with the federal corporate statutory rate of 35 percent.
Bain Already Killed Mitt Romney Once. And I Was a Witness.
(TIME Swampland) – I haven’t studied the details of Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain & Co. And I’m no expert in political tactics; when I write about them, it’s usually to make a larger point about a politician. My only credential for discussing whether Bain will hurt Romney in 2012 is that I lived in Massachusetts in 1994, when he was running for Senate against Ted Kennedy. I was just a kid covering night cops in Boston, paying virtually no attention to politics, but I do remember this: Bain killed Romney.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
