Raimondo Explains Why She Won’t Release Tax Returns

Raimondo Explains Why She Won’t Release Tax Returns

Democratic General Treasurer candidate Gina Raimondo refuses to release her tax returns—something she says she is doing to protect the privacy of her business partners.  An explanation that raises additional questions.

Raimondo is one of three general partners in Point Judith Capital Partners, LLC, a venture capital firm which manages $100 million worth of investments in more than 20 companies in three industries—Internet and mobile phones, energy and health care, and software. Originally started to support Rhode Island companies, but has few RI-based firms in their portfolio.

Raimondo says she is not making her returns public because that would mean revealing what her two partners make as well. “They have asked me not to do this to respect their privacy,” Raimondo told GoLocalProv.

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A leading local accountant, however, told GoLocalProv that because Port Judith Capital Partners is an LLC, disclosing her returns would not uncover what her partners made as well.

Business Partners Share Profits Equally

But Raimondo said that her LLC is registered with the state of Rhode Island not as a corporation, but a general partnership. She said releasing her tax returns would make the income of her two other partners public because profits are split equally among the three. That division of profit is not mandated by law, but Raimondo said it is an industry standard. “There’s no mystery about the structure of our partnership,” she said.  

The firm earns 2 percent off of the money that it invests. It also makes 20 percent of the profits generated from those investments, according to Raimondo.

She promised that if she is elected General Treasurer, she will leave the company and disclose her returns as a state employee. “Next year, when I’m in office, I’ll be an open book,” Raimondo told GoLocalProv.