The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

ProPublica ^ | 8.June.2021 | Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen, Paul Kiel

[farming pharmer]

ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.

[farming pharmer]

This long and whiny hit piece is probably worth the read. Two things I take away:

1) The current junta is willing to expose tax information to fellow travelers for political gain, and,

2) They're going to fire up class warfare as their race warfare loses steam.

I'm not against billionaires paying taxes, but consider the source of the information as you read.

[pepsionice]

No one is really cheating....they all utilize the 80,000 pages of federal tax code to their advantage. They pay accountants who are experts on the code, and everything is legit.

So unless some idiot wants to dump the 80,000 pages and go to a standardized 10-percent tax, with no credits and zero out all of the hundreds of thousands of angles....I don’t see this changing.

Getting to some point where everyone pays their fair share....means that 50-percent of Americans go from paying zero....to paying something, and way too much money in the federal pot, which they would just build a thousand bridges a year to ‘nowhere’.

[Tell It Right]

I can sum it up for you. The best way to avoid taxes while making tons of money is to donate heavily to the Dims in power.

[Red Badger]

How does one get past the AMT? Alternative Minimum Tax?......Asking for a friend....................

[Jewbacca]

Don’t have income.

[Red Badger]

Well, that’s ONE way......................

[a fool in paradise]

That “code” doesn’t just happen. They pay for such laws to be enacted. It’s cheaper than paying the taxes they insist YOU should be paying more of.

[farming pharmer]

No one is really cheating....they all utilize the 80,000 pages of federal tax code to their advantage. They pay accountants who are experts on the code, and everything is legit.

Which they hardly mention, if at all, in this article.

[Leep]

Leftist politicians are becoming filthy rich. Multimillionaires with 3 or more multimillion dollar mansions.
That is some amazing loopholes.

[unixfox]

Maybe they should do a “study” on how the average middle class taxpayer gets raped.

I’m sure they don’t want THAT story to get leaked.

[KC Burke]

...showing how billionaires ... pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.

Quote shows the stupidity and grasping thievery motivations of the author.

It is an INCOME tax, not a WEALTH tax. The tax code specifically defines the income to be taxed and all try to pay only what they owe under the LAW. We are a republic of laws not of grasping thievery.

[G Larry]

The more impressive figures are those reflecting tax rate on earnings (rather than growth in value).

WB = 19%

JB=23%

MB=3%

EM=30%

Musk needs to higher Bloomberg's accountant.

[griswold3]

Avoidance is legal (Judge Learned Hand)
Evasion is illegal.

[Reily]

To all

This is all part of a propaganda run-up to taxing wealth as well as income. The Rats have been salivating about a “national wealth tax” for decades.

Remember “You’ll own nothing and be happy !”

[alternatives?]

There was an article on Bob Kraft receiving a Bentley from his friends on his 80th birthday showing appreciation for him as a person and the things he has done.

Almost all of the comments were negative. People don’t understand the sin of envy.

[Jewbacca]

I didn’t say “don’t get money”.

I said don’t get income.

There’s a difference.

[1Old Pro]

No one is really cheating....they all utilize the 80,000 pages of federal tax code to their advantage. They pay accountants who are experts on the code, and everything is legit.

Pretty much agree with that.

[ScubaDiver]

A lot of the shenanigans center around using AMT credits and ‘deferral preferences’ to offset future earnings. As one tax lawyer explained to me once, ‘This is where the magic happens.’

This is a SUPER over-simplified explanation: Even if deductions are disallowed under AMT for the current accounting period, you might be able to leverage that disallowed value into an AMT credit against future earnings.

Almost always when MEGA high-income people pay little in taxes, they’re claiming a significant chunk of these rereferred preference AMT credits. Private bonds deductions often receive this kind of tax treatment because they’re capped under AMT. So, people that are highly invested in these private bonds (like stadium bonds, for instance), eventually enjoy the tax benefit of the deduction even though AMT is supposed to cap it. Ever sports franchise owner leans HEAVILY into this aspect of AMT avoidance.

[Red Badger]

Heh-heh-heh.........got it!...................

[proxy_user]

Wealth is simply not money and not income. What Bezos owns is a bunch of server farms, warehouses, goods, vehicles and offices. While the stock market has arbitrarily increased the supposed cash value of this stuff, he still has pretty much what he had before. Only by selling stock, or having Amazon pay a dividend, can Bezos turn his wealth of physical things into cash income.

Furthermore, Amazon is paying property tax on all these physical things, every year. However, the value of Amazon stock is much greater than their market value individually, which is the basis for property tax.