A Couple of Questions for Romney Trustee Brad Malt and Former-IRS-Commissioner-cum-Romney-Testimonial-Provider Fred Goldberg

Between 1990 and 2009, the Romneys’ average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.2 percent, according to [notarized tax return summaries by Romney trustee Brad] Malt. The lowest effective federal personal tax rate they paid in that period was 13.66 percent, he said.

Over the same 20-year period, the couple gave an average of 13.45 percent of their adjusted gross income to charity.

Fred Goldberg, a former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, said in a statement released by Romney’s campaign that the couple “fully satisfied their responsibilities as taxpayers.”

“These returns reflect the complexity of our tax laws and the types of investment activity that I would anticipate for persons in their circumstances,” Goldberg said in the statement. “There is no indication or suggestion of any tax-motivated or aggressive tax planning activities.”

Fred Goldberg, a former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, said in a statement released by Romney’s campaign that the couple fully satisfied their responsibilities as taxpayers?  That’s good to know, but the question remains: When, exactly, did they satisfy their responsibilities as taxpayers for the years preceding the 2009 IRS amnesty program for anonymous holders of Swiss (and other foreign) bank account holders?  Might it have been retroactively, like, maybe, in 2009?

And, there is no indication or suggestion of any tax-motivated or aggressive tax planning activities?  That’s good to know, too. But is Goldberg limiting his statement to what Romney revealed in summaries?  Or does Goldberg have privy to the records of the $20 million-to-$102 million IRA account held in a Cayman Islands account?  And to the mysterious fund, or bank account, or whatever, in Bermuda?

Just wondering.  

Malt, by the way, was the trustee of the UBS account that was disclosed in the tax return for 2010. The tax return indicated that Malt had closed the account in early 2010.