At Thursday night’s Republican primary debate on CNN, Mitt Romney told the audience he “didn’t inherit money from my parents.” Romney’s dad, George Romney, was the CEO of the American Motors Company and governor of Michigan during the 1960s, so it’s hard to believe he didn’t have money to bequeath his son Mitt. As it happens, the younger Romney explained what happened to his inheritance in more detail in an interview with Reuters in December [emphasis added]:
“What I got from my parents when they passed away I gave away to charity and to my kids. And so what I’ve earned has been earned through my education, my values, living in the greatest country in the world, through some luck and through hard work,” he said.
Passing your inheritance on to your children is not the same as not inheriting money at all. And it actually makes me a bit curious: a common estate-tax reduction strategy known as a dynasty trust relies on skipping generations. Did Romney pass on his inheritance to his kids for tax reasons? It’s hard to know without seeing his tax returns—and that’s another reason why he should release them.
