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Buffett calls for retention of estate tax
yahoo news ^ | june 26,2006

Posted on 06/26/2006 7:11:10 PM PDT by AmericanMade1776

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire Warren Buffett on Monday called for U.S. lawmakers to retain the estate tax, after announcing plans to leave more than $37 billion of his own fortune to charity, not his children.

Buffett spoke after agreeing to sign over roughly $30.7 billion of his $44 billion fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, run by the Microsoft Corp. chairman and his wife, and another $6.4 billion to foundations on behalf of his late wife Susan and his children.

"I would hate to see the estate tax gutted," Buffett said at a Manhattan news conference with the Gateses about his donation.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: billionaires; deathtax; taxes; warrenbuffett
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To: donmeaker
If he donates money to find a cure for AIDS, it will be the first virus Microsoft ever stopped.

I'm not holding my breath. Another virus, the common cold, cannot be stopped despite the unimaginable billions that would flow to whatever company invented that drug.

As with the cold virus, the way to stop AIDS is with prevention. I guess it's just too politically incorrect for the Gateses and Warren to go around the developing world encouraging hygienic behavior. Their compassion apparently has its limits, and one of those limits seems to be not offending the leftist lobbies by violating their AIDS dogmas. Suffering poor be damned.

61 posted on 06/26/2006 8:09:31 PM PDT by SupplySider
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To: Polybius

i'm with you 101%.


62 posted on 06/26/2006 8:09:40 PM PDT by JohnLongIsland
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To: AmericanMade1776

The super wealthy don't pay estate tax. They pass their wealth to their family through foundations. Creep.


63 posted on 06/26/2006 8:15:52 PM PDT by tang-soo (Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks - Read Daniel Chapter 9)
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To: Polybius

"that man still sickeningly pontificates about "not giving incredible head starts to certain people who were very selective about the womb from which they emerged".

I don't think either Buffett or Gates exactly came from impoverished backgrounds, either.

Gates lucked out by snaring IBM with his buggy, inferior OS, then copied Apple's Mac OS, and has coasted ever since. IBM has since wised up and run from Windows as fast as they can. Buffett has specialized in investing in cash cows created by someone else, and protected by government. He's probably closer to a Soros type than to a real entrepreneur.


64 posted on 06/26/2006 8:18:32 PM PDT by hellbender
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To: AmericanMade1776

JIMMY Buffet???
ROFLMAO!!!!!


65 posted on 06/26/2006 8:22:26 PM PDT by Dick Bachert (And we all move a step closer to the One World Utopia -- where all but a few will be slaves.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Yes, indeed.

His motto seems to be "I upped MY wealth. Up yours!"


66 posted on 06/26/2006 8:23:37 PM PDT by Dick Bachert (And we all move a step closer to the One World Utopia -- where all but a few will be slaves.)
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To: hellbender

Bill Gates' Dad was a regent at the University of Washington. Long-time law professor, I believe.

I don't trust that family, either, and "We" already eradicated malaria. Something called "DDT". Now Little Rich Bill wants all the glory of a Greener way of doing it, while thousands still die.

[Not blaming him, of course, but, like all other Global problems, the etiology is an unaccountable "public" sector]


67 posted on 06/26/2006 8:23:44 PM PDT by IslandJeff
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To: caryatid

Neither does Warren Buffet, owner of Berkshire Hathaway. Isn't Jimmy Buffet the No.1 Parrothead?

And WARREN seems to be a BIRD BRAIN.

Perhaps they ARE related?


68 posted on 06/26/2006 8:25:24 PM PDT by Dick Bachert (.)
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To: IslandJeff

I don't see how an estate tax is any more ridiculous than any other tax.


69 posted on 06/26/2006 8:25:31 PM PDT by Huck (Hey look, I'm still here.)
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To: Polybius

Well, a million bucks isn't what it used to be. Seems to me the easy fix is to raise the exemption limit from it's current level to something more in line with modern times. Make the estate tax exempt up to 10 million.


70 posted on 06/26/2006 8:27:21 PM PDT by Huck (Hey look, I'm still here.)
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To: Huck

It's ridiculous because you've already paid taxes on the accumlation of tangible assets.

For example: you buy a gold coin for a buck. You sell it for two bucks, say, five years later. You have to record that Capital Gain, and pay a tax based on that market exchange. While your buck turned into two bucks (for you), fat Uncle Sam gets to turn around and tax that same asset again, while not giving a tax credit for asset losses.

Suppose, after selling that coin for cash, you want to leave the Legal Tender to your children/heirs. Fat Uncle Sam, in many cases, wants 55 cents on the dollar.

I oversimplified, but you get it.


71 posted on 06/26/2006 8:31:26 PM PDT by IslandJeff
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To: JohnLongIsland
I'm with you 101%.

Thank you.

I will take that as a binding legal contract and my attorney shall contact you upon my death so that you may help defray the estate tax cost to my estate. ;-)

72 posted on 06/26/2006 8:35:11 PM PDT by Polybius
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To: Paladin2

Jim Carrey is just annoying to me so I never saw the movie.


73 posted on 06/26/2006 8:43:20 PM PDT by perfect stranger (I need new glasses.)
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To: Polybius
Working families are paying estate taxes so that the mega-rich such as Warren Buffett can erect $37 billion monuments to their egos ESTATE TAX FREE.

And if done properly, aren't such donations also deductible against income tax?

74 posted on 06/26/2006 8:45:55 PM PDT by supercat (Sony delenda est.)
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To: Huck
I would say the estate tax incentivizes this sort of activity. I don't see a contradiction.

What is the real purpose of the Bill Gates Foundation? Is the purpose to perform charitable functions, or is the purpose to provide a source of income for people whom Gates and his heirs favor, as well as a source of money to advance those causes they favor, all while ensuring that the money in question dodges the taxman unless or until it's paid out as ordinary income to the Foundation's employees?

75 posted on 06/26/2006 8:49:46 PM PDT by supercat (Sony delenda est.)
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To: AmericanMade1776
Buffet is an insidious snake who has made his fortune exploiting the death tax and it's effect on family businesses.

When a profitable private business faces the death of the founder, Berkshire slithers in with a low-ball offer to the grieving heirs who otherwise can't raise the immediate cash needed to satisfy the IRS.

He has always overtly opposed changes to the inheritance tax and has had little trouble finding sympathetic politicians of both parties.

No inhertance tax = no Warren Buffet
76 posted on 06/26/2006 8:52:56 PM PDT by keat (I'm carbon neutral - how 'bout you?)
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To: IslandJeff

But that's not much different than most other taxes. Any income I earn gets taxed. And then when I go spend it, it gets taxed again. If I invest it and make money, that gain gets taxed. If I earn money, invest it and realize a gain, then take my gain and spend it on something, it's already been taxed 3 times. Not saying I like it, but I don't get what's so special about an estate tax that it desperately needs cutting. Why is it so much worse than any other tax?


77 posted on 06/26/2006 8:57:33 PM PDT by Huck (Hey look, I'm still here.)
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To: supercat

I don't know what the "real purpose" is any more than you do.


78 posted on 06/26/2006 8:58:09 PM PDT by Huck (Hey look, I'm still here.)
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To: hellbender
Remember, this guy supported Kerry. He would probably be offended that some of his money would be spent on things like defense. By giving it to the Gates Foundation, he's assured that much, if not most, goes to liberal causes like abortion and environmentalism.

BINGO! I've read that "reproductive freedom", translation: abortion on demand is one of his pet causes, along with nuclear disarmament.The guy's a warmed over Soros, IMHO.

79 posted on 06/26/2006 8:58:42 PM PDT by Marathoner
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To: donmeaker
If he donates money to find a cure for AIDS, it will be the first virus Microsoft ever stopped.

AIDS is not a virus.

80 posted on 06/26/2006 9:01:51 PM PDT by OmahaFields
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