Romney's Swiss bank account: a "gift for the Democrats"

The article says he had accounts in Switzerland, Bermuda, and the Caymans-- and that he paid taxes on them. But he closed his Switzerland account in 2010 so how do we know that he was paying taxes before then? And it's interesting that he closed his account after the Swiss government started reporting the accounts to the U.S. government.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/01/romneys-swiss-bank-account-is-a-gift-for-democrats/251893/

The Republican presidential contender, who released his tax forms Tuesday morning under pressure from his fellow candidates and the media, avoided some of the embarrassing pitfalls that can come with opening one's financial portfolio for public inspection. But in doing so, Romney handed Democratic opposition researchers a trove of new data that will surely show up in attack ads this fall, if he's lucky enough to be the GOP nominee.

Romney's tax forms show he made $21.7 million in 2010 and paid $3 million in federal taxes, a rate of just under 14 percent. The majority of Romney's income came from investments -- $12.6 million in capital gains, $3.3 million in interest and $4.9 million in regular dividends. The 2011 estimated forms show Romney made a total of $20.9 million last year, including $4.1 million in taxable interest, $3.1 million in dividends and $10.7 million in capital gains. Romney will pay about $3.4 million in taxes this year.

And the way Romney keeps his money will help paint that picture. Romney's tax forms show he had a bank account in Switzerland, which he closed in 2010, and accounts in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. All three have reputations as offshore havens where the extremely wealthy keep their cash, sometimes to avoid paying taxes (Romney actually did pay taxes on those accounts, but that minor detail may be left out of any attack ads).

SNIP