Warren Buffett’s liberal display of tax-increase hypocrisy

Washington Times ^ | 04/03/2014 | J.T. Young

[SeekAndFind]

While liberalism’s terminus is failure, its first stop is hypocrisy. Higher-tax advocate Warren Buffett recently illustrated this with his reported use of a tax strategy to avoid — you guessed it — higher taxes.

There is nothing new in the tax strategy or in Mr. Buffett’s use of it; it’s just an ample example of liberal hypocrisy.

As reported in Bloomberg BNA’s Daily Tax Report on March 20, Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. “plans to limit taxes on more than $1 billion of gains in Graham Holdings Co. stock by swapping the shares for assets owned by the former Washington Post publisher, according to a March 12 regulatory filing outlining terms.”

The tax-avoidance swap transaction is known as a “cash-rich split-off.” Assets are swapped between two parties, in order to avoid the sale of the original property, which would trigger a large tax bill. It is not daring:

Mr. Buffett used it last year and earlier in 2008. Should Mr. Buffett be taken to task for seeking to legally lower his taxes? No. That is what his shareholders expect and deserve. He would be putting his company at a competitive disadvantage to unnecessarily pay higher taxes than required.

Should Mr. Buffett be taken to task for expressing his opinion of support for higher taxes? No. He is free both to speak his mind and to be wrong. He has spoken freely — and contradictorily — over the past couple of years about the need for the “rich and ultrarich” to pay more in taxes.

[Alas Babylon!]

Should Mr. Buffett be taken to task for expressing his opinion of support for higher taxes? No. He is free both to speak his mind and to be wrong.

He's free to speak his mind and so are we and the Washington Times. Yes, not no, on being taken to task. Silly to say otherwise.

take someone to task:
-to scold or reprimand someone.
-to criticize someone

So, he is a hypocrite and needs scolding.

[Organic Panic]

Where is Hairy Weed on Buffet’s politicak activity?

[txrefugee]

Isn’t Buffet’s phalanx of tax lawyers busy fighting a billion dollar tax bill? He buys protection by contributing heavily to Democrats, so he’ll get away with it, but his heirs may have a tougher time.