Posted on 11/27/2012 2:44:39 PM PST by ExxonPatrolUs
Warren Buffett has an op-ed in today's NY Times on one of his most popular themes: The rich should pay more in taxes. At first blush, his position seems noble: A rich guy says that people like him should pay more to support the commonwealth. But on closer examination, one realizes that Mr Buffett never mentions doing anything to eliminate the tax-avoidance strategies that he uses most aggressively. In particular:
1. His company Berkshire Hathaway never pays a dividend but instead retains all earnings. So the return on this investment is entirely in the form of capital gains. By not paying dividends, he saves his investors (including himself) from having to immediately pay income tax on this income.
2. Mr Buffett is a long-term investor, so he rarely sells and realizes a capital gain. His unrealized capital gains are untaxed.
3. He is giving away much of his wealth to charity. He gets a deduction at the full market value of the stock he donates, most of which is unrealized (and therefore untaxed) capital gains.
4. When he dies, his heirs will get a stepped-up basis. The income tax will never collect any revenue from the substantial unrealized capital gains he has been accumulating.
To be sure, there are pros and cons of changing the provisions of the tax code of which Mr Buffett takes advantage. Tax policy always involves difficult tradeoffs. But it seems odd to me that whenever Mr Buffett talks about taxing the rich more, the "loopholes" that he uses never seem to enter into the conversation.
He wouldn't do that, would he? I know I wouldn't write articles like that for anything less than full billion...but that's just me.
That Warren sure is a swell guy. I expect any day that we’ll see him give all his money to the government so he can put on his Mao suit and go out and weed the cabbages at the collective. What a humanitarian.
Is the blogger suggesting that corporations be compelled to reduce their capital investment so that governments get a piece of it?
If they weren’t hypocrites they wouldn’t be Rats!
You’re really liking that new found skill, huh? Good image, because that’s what the idiots are doing; too little, too late.
And the soft landing depends entirely on magical thinking.
If I were a cynic and didn't believe in Warren's basic decency, I'd think these items MIGHT be influencing his decision to become a shill for this regime.
Its all just big brother crony rat nepotism.
“The blogger” would likely have become Romney’s Treasury Secretary, so one wonders, indeed...
America’s charitable givers may lose their tax deductions for their charity donations but I wonder if the big foundations such as the Gates Foundation, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations will lose their tax benefits.
http://global.christianpost.com/news/a-dagger-aimed-at-the-heart-of-americas-charities-85684/
Isn’t it interesting that Buffet makes his money off stocks, meanwhile he is very, very chummy with the Democrat party, congress can legally profit from insider knowledge in the stock market, sooo...do you suppose that Buffet’s Democrat buddies may be passing on helpful investing hints to Warren Buffet? Hmmm.
Isn’t it interesting that Buffet makes his money off stocks, meanwhile he is very, very chummy with the Democrat party, congress can legally profit from insider knowledge in the stock market, sooo...do you suppose that Buffet’s Democrat buddies may be passing on helpful investing hints to Warren Buffet? Hmmm.
Warren Buffet is the one percent of the one percent. Now he is ona mission to protect his place on a perch among the very, very wealthiest.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.