While Jeb Bush only announced eight months ago that he was “actively exploring” a campaign for president, his tax returns suggest he’s been at least passively considering a White House run for the past eight years – and was willing to fork over possibly millions of dollars to preserve the option.

In the process, he has both neutralized the sort of criticism that helped tank Mitt Romney by paying the highest federal rate possible while simultaneously buying the credibility to argue for tax reform that’s born of shared experience with many millions of Americans who believe they’re paying the IRS too much.

“Either he’s being very stupid from a tax perspective or very smart from a political perspective,” said Roberton Williams, an analyst at the Brooking Institution’s Tax Policy Center. “If you had a tax adviser who set up your businesses the way his were, you’d fire him.”