Mitt Romney Avoided Major Tax Hit By Shifting Stock Of Offshoring Firm [View all]

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney saved himself hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes in 2010 by transferring stock in two companies from his personal account to a nonprofit entity he set up. The stock maneuver included $172,397 in shares of Sensata Technologies, a company now under fire for a high-profile effort to offshore central Illinois jobs to China.

Sensata produces sensors, switches and various mechanical controls. The Attleboro, Mass.-based company is owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney founded, and it already does most of its work in overseas plants. A remaining factory in Freeport, Ill., garnered national attention when remaining workers began pleading with Romney to exercise his influence over Bain Capital to save their jobs.

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In 2010, Romney also transferred about $1.3 million worth of stock in Domino's Pizza to his nonprofit, which shaved about $600,000 off his tax bill. He reported paying nothing for the pizza shares, having acquired them as part of Bain's takeover of the company.

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Romney's Tyler Charitable Foundation has assets of roughly $10 million, of which it is only required to spend 5 percent per year to maintain its tax-preferred status. According to the foundation's Internal Revenue Service filings, it has distributed on average 7.8 percent annually over the past few years. That figure would be much lower, however, if it weren't for a single $1.8 million donation made to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2008. That year, the Mormon church was engaged in an all-hands-on-deck battle to pass a California ballot proposition banning same-sex marriage. (It passed, but a federal appeals court later ruled the ban unconstitutional.)


more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/mitt-romney-stocks-sensata_n_1687777.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012