Posted on 11/12/2007 6:45:17 PM PST by moneyrunner
Barack Obama said on Sunday's Meet the Press with Tim Russert
But, look, I’ve, I’ve got a friend, Warren Buffett, you may know, the guy made $46 million last year. This is public information because he’s concerned that he is paying a lower tax rate than anybody else in his office.
When we examine Warren Buffett and his complaint that his tax rate is lower than his secretary we find that it’s true. But only because of the way Buffett has decided to pay himself.
Warren Buffett is the Chairman and major shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, a very successful insurance company that owns large pieces of other companies, like the Washington Post. Berkshire Hathaway is also the sole owner of other companies like GEICO, the insurance company that uses a funny little green lizard speaking with a British accent as a “spokesman.” Berkshire Hathaway has assets of $276 billion, revenues for the first 9 months of 2007 of $90 billion, earnings for the same period of over $10 billion.
Now here’s the reason why Buffett’s tax rate is so low: he pays himself $100,000 per year. Little more than a good plumber or electrician.
(Excerpt) Read more at moneyrunner.blogspot.com ...
If Mr. Buffet wants to pay more taxes, then he can write a cheque for mine.
who cares what barak obama says? as for buffet, like soros, he has a gift. he should stick to what he knows.
Nice post. You hit the key points squarely. Warren Buffett’s hypocrisy is palpable.
Actually one point is missed.
Didn’t anybody else question how Warren Buffet can be worth $40B and yet have income of only $46M ? His “interest and dividend” strategy is yielding him barely a 1% return on his capital ?
Has he intentionally put his capital into growth investments that give no current income to achieve a lower tax amount as well as taking advantage of the lowest tax rate ? Or is he holding tax exempt bonds so he has more than $46M income but it is not taxable income at all ?
Regardless, it is all irrelevent. Warren Buffet is not supposed to get anything more back from government than someone working for minium wage. To my mind, he is paying about $6M more in Federal taxes than he should. Until each person pays his share of the Federal tab — $10K and no more — we will never cut spending down to a level we can actually afford.
Has anybody ever heard how Buffet would “correct” this “injustice” ?
And when he plays the game of comparing his effective income tax rate to his “secretary”, is he counting the SS taxes they both pay and the including the value of the benefits they will each receive ? SS taxes are not like the income tax because they DIRECTLY benefit the person taxed. After reducing the “tax” by the amount of the benefit, depending on how close to the SS cap your earned income was, the actual “tax” ranges from less than zero for low income workers to about 3% for those at the cap rather than the full 12.4%
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