Mitt Romney's Mormon Tax Shelter

Mitt Romney gave the Mormon church substantial stock holdings that he obtained through his private equity firm, according to documents filed with the government. Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicate that Romney and others at Bain have given "appreciated stock" to the church and various charities, which gives the donors potentially generous tax benefits. The SEC records, which cover a period from 1997 to 2008, reveal several donations worth millions of dollars of stock in Bain deals to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The SEC filings indicate that donations to the church in stock from Bain deals reached well into the millions of dollars. They include a gift of nearly $2 million in Burger King stock in February 2007 generated by a Bain deal. the Mormon church received what SEC filings and stock pricing records indicate was $1.3 million of stock in a company called Innophos Holdings in June 2008. The church received an estimated $1 million in Domino's Pizza stock in 2004, in yet another donation. Tax analysts said that if Romney and others at Bain got a stock cheap and eventually donated it to a church or charity without cashing in the stock, then they could get two tax benefits. First, they would not have to pay capital gains tax on the appreciated value of the stock, which they would have to do if they sold the stock and either pocketed or donated the proceeds. Second, they might be able to deduct all, or at least part of, the value of the donated stock from their taxable income. Such a move can save wealthy donors millions of dollars, the analysts said. If Romney or another Bain part. The donor of the shares to the Mormon church avoided tax on the substantial capital gain and would have been able to count some or all of the $2.09 million of stock given to the church as a tax-deductible charitable contribution. If donor had cashed in the shares, they would have been taxed on the $21.89 per share gain, or $2.05 million.