荷媒爆料：罗姆尼借助荷兰税法漏洞逃税数百万美元

荷兰媒体称罗姆尼利用荷兰税法漏洞捞得数百万美元。

英国《每日邮报》11月5日援引荷兰《人民报》的报道，美国共和党总统候选人米特·罗姆尼借助其创建的贝恩资本、利用荷兰税法漏洞获利数百万美元。调查者是通过研究罗姆尼创建的贝恩资本的纳税申报、他本人的税务申报和荷兰商会的文件得出这一结论的。

罗姆尼1999年离职时，贝恩以资本利得税而不是工资的名义给他支付了一大笔钱，这就意味着罗姆尼可以缴纳更少的税款。至少截至2009年，罗姆尼和妻子安仍在贝恩投资，并于2010年和2011年获得了免税收入。

而贝恩资本又是利用荷兰的税法漏洞逃避了1亿美元的股息税。它于2004年给爱尔兰一家制药公司投资了一大笔钱，2010年又将在该公司的股份注册到了荷兰私人企业Alter Domus名下，后者专门为跨国公司和投资基金提供行政服务。而根据荷兰法律，如果一家荷兰企业拥有的另一家公司的股份超过5%，那么后者就可以免缴资本利得税。

另据报道，作为魔门教徒，罗姆尼还利用摩门教会的免税资格推迟缴税长达15年以上。他捐赠了数千万美元给慈善机构，主要是给摩门教会。

（来源：中国日报网 欧叶 编辑：周凤梅）

　　

　　

Romney made millions by using tax loophole in the Netherlands, Dutch newspaper claims

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2228262/Romney-millions-using-tax-loophole-Netherlands-Dutch-newspaper-claims.html

Mitt Romney has made millions of dollars through a tax loophole in the Netherlands, it was claimed today.

The Republican presidential candidate received the money through his continued involvement with Bain Capital, the private-equity company he established in 1994 before launching his political career.

Mr Romney received a severance deal when he departed the firm in 1999 that paid him in capital gains tax rather than a salary, according to a report by the website Follow The Money and Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant.

This means that the GOP candidate would have to pay significantly less tax.

It has also emerged that Mr Romney and his wife Ann were allowed to continue investing in Bain until at least 2009 and were still receiving tax-free income in 2010 and 2011.

The Netherlands connection is complicated but boils down to the country offering huge tax breaks to multi-national firms such as Bain, which is reported to have avoided $100million (80million euros) in dividend taxes there.

Bain managed this by, in 2004, investing in the Irish pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott.

At the time it was registered in Bermuda, but it moved to Ireland five years later after Barack Obama's administration cracked down on the island's tax breaks.

In 2010, Bain moved its interest in Warner Chilcott to Dutch firm Alter Domus, which provides administrative services for multi-national companies.

If a Dutch company owns more than 5 per cent of the shares in another firm, then that firm is exempt from paying capital gains tax.

The report claims that there is a discrepancy between Mr Romney's tax filings in the U.S. and the tax-exempt shares worth $450,000 that he donated to his son's charity the Tyler Foundation in 2011.

The investigators came to their conclusions by studying Bain's tax returns, Mr Romney's own tax filings and Dutch Chamber Of Commerce documents.

According to an investigation by Bloomberg News published last month, Mr Romney has benefited from a now-outlawed loophole that enables him to use the tax-exempt status of the Mormon church to reduce his own tax bill.

Then the chief executive officer of Bain Capital, he set up the arrangement in June 1996, the year before Congress clamped down on the practice.

As someone whose arrangements were already established, he was allowed to keep them in place.

Called a charitable remainder unitrust, it is one of several strategies Mr Romney has adopted to reduce his tax bill. Such tax avoidance is legal and common among very rich people but it has been turned into an issue by the Obama campaign.

In the second presidential debate, President Barack Obama slammed Mr Romney for paying 'lower tax rates than somebody who makes a lot less'.

In this case, Mr Romney used the tax-exempt status of Mormon Church to defer taxes for more than 15 years.

While Mr Romney will benefit, the trust will probably leave the church with less than what the law now requires, according to tax returns obtained by Bloomberg this month through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Charities don’t usually owe capital gains taxes when they sell assets for a profit and trusts like Mr Romney’s permit funders to benefit from that tax-free treatment.

Mr Romney has donated tens of millions of dollars to charities, principally the Mormon church.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2228262/Romney-millions-using-tax-loophole-Netherlands-Dutch-newspaper-claims.html#ixzz2BP1r226j

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