I have on occasion remarked that some of the most interesting developments in France are downplayed in the French press (especially Le Monde), and that we first learn of them in the N.Y. Times.
Here is a somewhat similar case, though with nationalities reversed.
In my mailbox today was a link to this eye-catching headline:
Une ex-société de Romney soupçonnée de fraude fiscale
Zowie! thought I. News to me!
Le Figaro does not pretend to have broken this story; their brief account cites “la presse anglo-saxonne”, specifically the Financial Times and the New York Times. I regularly read the latter, but somehow missed this one.
And now I see why. The Times headline is, by comparison with the French one, a yawner:
Inquiry on Tax Strategy Adds to Scrutiny of Finance Firms
Only if you doggedly proceed, do you find a reference to Romney:
The New York attorney general is investigating whether some of the nation’s biggest private equity firms have abused a tax strategy in order to slice hundreds of millions of dollars from their tax bills. … Among the firms to receive subpoenas are Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, TPG Capital, Sun Capital Partners, Apollo Global Management, Silver Lake Partners and Bain Capital, which was founded by Mitt Romney.
The tax strategy — which is viewed as perfectly legal by some tax experts, aggressive by others and potentially illegal by some — came to light last month when hundreds of pages of Bain’s internal financial documents were made available online. The financial statements show that at least $1 billion in accumulated fees that otherwise would have been taxed as ordinary income for Bain executives had been converted into investments producing capital gains, which are subject to a federal tax of 15 percent, versus a top rate of 35 percent for ordinary income. That means the Bain partners saved more than $200 million in federal income taxes and more than $20 million in Medicare taxes.
Note: Conservatives accuse the NYTimes of anti-Republican bias, but they certainly haven’t played this story up, compared with Le Figaro, which is generally accounted a conservative newspaper.
Republicans will complain that the investigation is politicized -- who knows, perhaps it is -- and that it’s a minor story since probably most of these financial shenanigans are legal: and indeed, perhaps they are. But that is the real story: the labyrinths of sleights-of-hand and hideaways constructed by the lobbyists who write our tax laws; and the scandal that one of the most bald-faced practitioners of unproductive vulture capitalism -- Mr. Mitt “Cayman Islands” Romney -- has the effrontery to show his face in public, here in the wake of the Bush Recession, brought on by the shameless speculators of quite his stripe.
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