There are only a few reasons I can think of why an American like Mitt Romney would put, or allow to be put, a substantial amount of their wealth in offshore bank accounts.
- To evade US taxes (which is illegal)
- To avoid US taxes (which is legal but not always patriotic)
- Because he doesn’t trust American banks or the US banking system
- Because he doesn’t trust the American economy
- Because they he doesn’t the value of the Dollar
- He wants to hide his financial dealings or net worth from people he is asking to trust him with their vote
- He don’t feel that connected to America, its future and fate as most Americans do
- He wants to hedge his bets should something happen to America, our banks or economy
- Because he can get a better return on his money from the other banks
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want a president who used offshore banks for reasons 1-8. I would hope that someone who aspired to be the President of the US and was such a smart business person as Mitt Romney claims to be, would figure out a way to invest their money in the US where they could get a better return on their income than from overseas banks.
If there are other reasons why Mitt Romney and his families wealth are domiciled overseas that are different than the reasons I can think of and he doesn’t want to disclose his reasons I think then: 1) these reasons would reflect poorly on Mitt Romney or 2) he wouldn’t disclose the reasons is because he doesn’t think the average American, the 98-99% of us who are not super rich, would be smart enough to understand his reason and agree it does not reflect poorly. Either way, I wouldn’t want someone with these reasons to be my President.