Romney Defending Tax Return Stance Says ‘Not A Business’

Mitt Romney, defending his refusal to release more than two years of tax returns, said, unlike a company being evaluated by a potential investor, he shouldn’t have to provide more details of his finances for public vetting.

“I’m not a business,” the presumed Republican presidential nominee said in an Aug. 7 interview with Bloomberg Businessweek when asked whether he would want to see five years of financial information for a firm in which he might invest.

 

Mitt Romney during a campaign event with Republican Governors at Basalt Public High School on August 2, 2012 in Colorado. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Aug. (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. Representative Tom Perriello, a Democrat from Virginia, talks about presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s tax plan. Perriello, president and chief executive officer of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop.” (Source: Bloomberg)

“We have a process in this country, which was established by law, which provides for the transparency which candidates are required to meet,” he said. “I have met with that requirement with full financial disclosure of all my investments, but in addition have provided and will provide a full two years of tax returns.”

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and private equity executive whose fortune is estimated at about $250 million, has faced increasing calls -- both from Democrats questioning whether he dodged paying taxes and Republicans eager to put the issue to rest -- to release more tax filings that would shed light on his investments and financial activities.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, has been the most outspoken on the issue, recently claiming that he had been told by someone with knowledge of Romney’s finances that the Republican hadn’t paid taxes for a decade.