Grading PolitiFact *Liberal*-Style: Tricky Mitt

The Merriam-Webster web page for the definition of “trick” includes a “synonym discussion” at the bottom of the page. There it lays out different forms of the word trick as a maneuver which“suggests adroit and skillful avoidance of difficulty < last-minute maneuvers to avert bankruptcy>."

So, let’s replace the “avert bankruptcy” with “avoid paying taxes” and you can see why PolitiFact’s calling a recent claim by Obama describing Romney’s carried interest maneuvers as “tax tricks” isn’t quite as “Mostly False” as its ruling portrays.

Obama never said Romney was doing anything illegal. Tricks may imply deception, but, as described in the definition, they are often to a harmless end. Romney may have avoided millions in taxes, but this is supposed to encourage entrepreneurship.

I would not call itemized deductions for property taxes and mortgage interest “tricks” because they are commonly used, available to everyone who owns a home, and transparent. “Carried interest” however is a complicated strategy, for only the extremely wealthy, that must be explained, often in the “fine print” of management agreements. Its “trickiness” derives from its complexity.

It should also be noted that getting rid of the carried interest “trick” (and taxing carried interest at higher ordinary income rates instead of at the  lower capital gains rate) was on Obama’s promise list, and it is considered “stalled.” There, it is termed a “tax loophole”, which is defined by Wikipedia is a “an ambiguity in a system, such as a law or security, which can be used to circumvent or otherwise avoid the intent, implied or explicitly stated, of the system.”  Circumvent?  Avoid the intent of the system? Sounds like a "tax trick" to me.

There’s also an underlying argument here with regard to Mitt’s not disclosing previous tax returns (which exacerbate the “trick” because they also imply some deception) and all the money he stashes in  those offshore accounts,  in order, of course, to avoid taxes, which PolitiFact has found to be, in two cases, True. This tends to makes the trickiness factor of Mitt’s tax maneuvers inconclusively Half True—partially accurate but leaving out important details, not really misleading as would be the case of a Mostly False. 

Even the ruling admitted that some of the tax experts they (writers Jon Greenberg and Louis Jacobson) consulted thought that "Obama's use of the word 'trick' is fair."  Fair enough.  "Mostly False" is a little too harsh.