to defeat Obama in 2012. He actually spent much more than that. It is estimated that he spent about $200 million plus whatever he donated to dark money groups.
One of the reasons Adelson spends so much is because he has $20 Billion offshore that he earned from his casino's in Macau. The current tax rate in Macau is 0%, so the entire 20 Billion is subject to US taxes. That would mean a tax bill of about $4 Billion. Romney promised to waive the taxes on foreign investment income if he were elected. Bush gave a "tax holiday" to repatriate money without paying taxes. Basically for Adelson, if he gets a Republican elected who will allow this same holiday he saves $4 Billion in taxes, less whatever it costs to get the individual elected.
Other factors, from the NYT:
The first answer is clearly his disgust for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, supported by President Obama and most Israelis. He considers a Palestinian state “a steppingstone for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people,” and has called the Palestinian prime minister a terrorist. He is even further to the right than the main pro-Israeli lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which he broke with in 2007 when it supported economic aid to the Palestinians.
SNIP
Mr. Adelson’s other overriding interest is his own wallet. He rails against the president’s “socialist-style economy” and redistribution of wealth, but what he really fears is Mr. Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on companies like his that make a huge amount of money overseas. Ninety percent of the earnings of his company, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, come from hotel and casino properties in Singapore and Macau. (The latter is located, by the way, in China, a socialist country the last time we checked.)
Because of the lower tax rate in those countries (currently zero in Macau), the company now has a United States corporate tax rate of 9.8 percent, compared with the statutory rate of 35 percent. President Obama has repeatedly proposed ending the deductions and credits that allow corporations like Las Vegas Sands to shelter billions in income overseas, but has been blocked by Republicans.
Mr. Obama’s Justice Department is also investigating whether Mr. Adelson’s Macau operations violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an inquiry that Mr. Adelson undoubtedly hopes will go away in a Romney administration. For such a man, at a time when there are no legal or moral limits to the purchase of influence, spending tens of millions is a pittance to elect Republicans who promise to keep his billions intact.
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