McCaskill in 2004: “Some have implied that the assets of
my family don't belong to me. That notion is pretty archaic.”
JEFFERSON CITY—Shifting blame to her husband and reversing her previous statements, Senator Claire McCaskill’s office responded yesterday allegations that she is avoiding U.S. taxes through her ownership of a Bermuda-based company. Through a spokesman, McCaskill’s office claimed in the Kansas City Star: “Like Warren Buffet, Claire's husband has an investment in a reinsurance company in a foreign country that has never been a tax benefit to him nor will there ever be a tax benefit for this investment.”
McCaskill clearly distanced herself from the Bermuda-based business, placing blame squarely on her husband, the wealthy developer of low-income housing Joe Shepard. This separation stands in stark contrast to a 2004 McCaskill statement regarding her family’s finances, in which she claimed, “My husband and I are a team… We are married, and we share everything -- assets, children and a house... Some have implied that the assets of my family don't belong to me. That notion is pretty archaic.” (Post-Dispatch, July 18, 2004)
In addition, McCaskill continues to maintain that her Bermuda-based company does not exist to provide tax benefits. Of course, the only way to discern if she is telling the truth is for her to release her family’s tax returns. She has stubbornly refused to do so over the past five years.
“Once again, Senator McCaskill is dodging questions, avoiding responsibility, and clouding the issue of her family’s Bermuda-based tax shelter. Despite previously claiming that she and her husband ‘share everything,’ McCaskill is now distancing herself from the business,” said Lloyd Smith, Executive Director of the Missouri Republican Party. “It is well-established that insurance companies move their operations to Bermuda to avoid the taxes that the rest of us pay, but McCaskill continues to the shift blame. She is doing so for political expediency and possibly to avoid getting caught up in President Obama’s crackdown of offshore tax havens. The solution is simple: McCaskill should remove her longstanding resistance and immediately release her family’s tax returns for the public to inspect.”
Background on why companies like McCaskill’s move to Bermuda, from a March 6, 2000 New York Times article entitled “Bermuda Move Allows Insurers to Avoid Taxes: “[Reinsurance company] profits come from investing the premiums their customers pay from the time they are collected until they are paid out in claims. In the United States these investment earnings are subject to the 35 percent corporate income tax and about 5 percent in state taxes. But Bermuda does not tax corporate profits. By moving its headquarters there, an insurer can put the investment income on the books of its Bermuda offices, beyond the reach of the Internal Revenue Service.” (MRP)
