Warren Buffet Cheats on his Taxes

Timothy Birdnow

Well, well, well! Warren Buffet, billionaire liberal (and uncle to singer Jimmy), has called for raising taxes on "the super rich". http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html?_r=1 This supposedly places Buffett in the line of fire, and illustrates that those who know see there is a serious need to do this.

Mr. Buffet bemoans;

"Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent."

End excerpt.

Now, there is nothing stopping him from paying MORE to the treasury if he feels guilty, but surely he wouldn't consider doing such a thing. Also, Mr. Buffet fails to mention that much of his income is shielded in untaxable venues; the tax code is progressive, after all, and if he's paying less in a percentage of his taxes it's because he's sheltering his money.

Here is an income-tax rate table that shows that Mr. Buffett is hiding his taxable income.
http://www.invest-2win.com/brackets.html

Note that the top rate is 35% - not 17% - and that on any income over $379,150 for a married couple. He makes substantially over that.

Yet Mr. Buffet bemoans his low taxes. Well, why not? Turns out he just doesn't pay them!
http://netrightdaily.com/2011/08/warren-buffett%E2%80%99s-taxing-hypocrisy/

According to this piece by Bill Wilson at ALG:

"But if he were truly sincere, perhaps he might simply try paying the taxes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says his company owes? According to Berkshire Hathaway’s own annual report — see Note 15 on pp. 54-56 — the company has been in a years-long dispute over its federal tax bills.

According to the report, “We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments proposed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (‘IRS’) for the 2002 through 2004 tax years at the IRS Appeals Division within the next 12 months. The IRS has completed its examination of our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2005 and 2006 tax years and the proposed adjustments are currently being reviewed by the IRS Appeals Division process. The IRS is currently auditing our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2007 through 2009 tax years.”

Americans for Limited Government researcher Richard McCarty, who was alerted to the controversy by a federal government lawyer, said, “The company has been short-changing the tax collection agency for much of the past decade. Mr. Buffet’s company has not fully settled its tax bills from 2002-2009. Yet he says he’d happily pay more. Except the IRS has apparently been asking him to pay more going on nine years.”

End excerpt.

No wonder he's only paying 17%.

The very wealthy LIKE higher taxes; it keeps the young turks at bay. The big boys can use the tax code to hurt the up-and-comers, so often favor higher and more complicated taxes. They generally exempt themselves, much like Leona Helmsley, who said taxes are for poor people (or something to that effect). She went to jail, but nobody is going to go after Buffet because he is helping the Democrats and they'll do what it takes to shield their cash cows. Buffet knows this, so writes op-eds arguing for higher taxes to aid his allies; he won't have to pay those taxes himself.

What a hero.