Romney ‘I Dig It’ Trust Gives Heirs Triple Benefit
By Jesse Drucker - Sep 27, 2012 4:00 AM ET
In January 1999, a trust set up by Mitt Romney for his children and grandchildren reaped a 1,000 percent return on the sale of shares in Internet advertising firm DoubleClick Inc.
If Romney had given the cash directly, he could have owed a gift tax at a rate as high as 55 percent. He avoided gift and estate taxes by using a type of generation-skipping trust known to tax planners by the nickname: “I Dig It.”
Mitt Romney’s effective income tax rate in 2011 was about 14 percent. He’s enhanced his family’s wealth by moving assets worth $100 million into a trust while taking steps to avoid paying any gift taxes.
Mitt Romney’s effective income tax rate in 2011 was about 14 percent. He’s enhanced his family’s wealth by moving assets worth $100 million into a trust while taking steps to avoid paying any gift taxes. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg
.The sale of DoubleClick shares received before the company went public, detailed in previously unreported securities filings reviewed by Bloomberg News, sheds new light on Romney’s estate planning -- the art of leaving assets for heirs while avoiding taxes. The Republican presidential candidate used a trust considered one of the most effective techniques for the wealthy to bypass estate and gift taxes. The Obama administration proposed cracking down on the tax benefits in February.
While Romney’s tax avoidance is both legal and common among high-net-worth individuals, it has become increasingly awkward for his candidacy since the disclosure of his remarks at a May fundraiser. He said that the nearly one-half of Americans who pay no income taxes are “dependent upon government” and “believe that they are victims.”
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