Last week we learned a little about how Romney’s imaginative accountants managed to keep his tax rate above 13 percent — first they ignored nearly $250,000 in charitable deductions he could’ve claimed. They also failed to list Rafalca, Ann Romney’s dressage horse, whose legally incorporated name is Rob Rom LLC. Yet back in 2010, the Romneys claimed nearly $78,000 in expenses related to Rafalca’s upkeep as deductible losses, most of which could’ve been carried over to their 2011 taxes. So why the omission? “After all, being in the Olympics probably raised the mare’s value,” Business Insider muses, “making the profit motive necessary for an allowable business deduction more plausible.” Maybe the pressure of being an investment got to Rafalca and cost her the gold medal. Or maybe Romney just wanted to avoid being one of the 47 percent.
