Buffett calls for retention of estate tax

yahoo news ^ | june 26,2006

[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.

[Myrddin]

Buffett doesn't care. He's lived a comfortable life. He's giving away money that he can't possibly live long enough to spend. A small amount will be put in a trust for his children. A trust that won't be subject to the estate tax. The estate tax is for little people who don't have enough money to hire a good lawyer to protect their assets in a trust. By the time they realize they need a trust, the government has their meat hooks locked on the assets of the recently departed.

The income tax exists to make sure that people who earn a living are restrained from ever attaining the kind of wealth that people like Buffett, Kennedy and Kerry enjoy. The estate tax assures that the government can steal the rest upon the death of the income earner.

[IslandJeff]

Excellent points (and great thread - thanks for responding). What you've done is WORKED for your investment capital, and assumed risk putting it into a market. In other words, what you have worked hard to invest can also lose value, subject to various market conditions. You've also (don't forget) paid a tax on your productivity; whatever is left over after feeding and providing you and yours is yours (I'll leave out Sales Taxes, which tend to front states, while the Estate Tax is Federal), and you can deduct various and sundry from that every April.

Now take the next step - when Huck goes to Heaven, what would Huck think about Uncle Sam grabbing half of what Huck "netted", in light of the market risks taken by Huck (thoughtfully), the taxes on Huck's earnings already collected, on top of the skimming Uncle Sam took on his (hopefully) successful investments?

[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.

Exactly! (With inflation indexing each year.)

What was that Daddy Warbucks line from the movie "Annie"?

"I made my first Billion dollars when I was 24. That was a lot of money back then!"

The problem with Democrat demagogues such as John Kerry (gigolo that married into a $500 million fortune tax-free and who paid less income tax in 2004 than Polybius paid in 2005) is that they define "The Rich" as a dual income family where the husband and the wife earn a combined $200,000 per year before taxes.

The problem with Warren Buffett is that he is so isolated from average Americans that he does not seem to have a clue that estate taxes affect more than those families who wonder if it is best to leave each kid $50 million or $500 million.

"You should leave each child enough money so that they can do anything they want to do but not so much money that they do nothing at all."...........Warren Buffet

I consider myself a workaholic but, even if my wife and I drop dead five minute before I retire, I will never be able to leave that much money to my two children so that they can do anything they please and not be on welfare by the time they are 40.

That is the world that Warren Buffet lives in and he is totally out of touch with even the most workaholic average American family.

[Huck]

Huck has no kids, and no plans of having any, so I hope to either leave substantial unrecoverable debt behind (just kidding--I think), or leave whatever assets I have to charity. When it comes to taxation, the gubmint's gonna get theirs one way or the other. I prefer they get it from someone else. I say keep the estate tax, but lower the % and raise the exemption to make it realistic for modern times.

[IslandJeff]

IslandJeff has no kids either, and will probably clear his life just in the black - nowhere exponentially near Warren (or even Jimmy) Buffett.

My thoughts drift toward families that have taken risks (even pooling capital), and started successful businesses. Anything from a corner franchise convenience store to a ten-partner law firm.

The insatiable maw of the convuluted and (deliberately) complicated Federal Tax Code works against prosperity and, arguably, against innovation that might just very well come from us plebians.

Sometimes Right is just Right.

God Bless,
J-

[Cobra64]

There is no contradiction that I can see between giving away a lot of money to charity and paying an estate tax.

You don't know the difference between choice in giving and confiscation by the government?

Even a three year old knows the difference.

It's mind boggling how many people are stuck on stooopid.

[Swiss]

I am going to predict that Buffett's forture will actually increase rather than decrease because of all this.

The fact that he is donating stock instead of cash and doing it over time rather than all at once makes me think this is a scheme to raise the value of the BH stock he keeps. Why even keep 15%? Unless that 15% at the end of all this will be worth more than 100% now.

I think we are seeing the birth of one of the biggest scams in history.

[DesScorp]

Fscking limosine liberal...

[gogeo]

Democratic opponents have argued that a full repeal would cost the U.S. Treasury about $1 trillion over the next decade, and principally benefit the ultra-rich.

So...the two richest guys in the world...how much will they be paying?

Right...

[cherry]

as I understand it, Buffet's stipulation about the money is that the 3 billion or so that is donated EACH YEAR has to be spent in that year.....

now, isn't he also avoiding income taxes by making this donation a yearly thing.....it'll sure lessen his share of taxes...

I know, I know...I'm critical....but the rich always have their angles....

you and me.....maybe we get to deduct that old car we donate and maybe we get to deduct the money we give to charities...depending on our tax bracket....

[IslandJeff]

Man's gotta make a living. Though, as I understand (unsubstantiated), WB is somewhat the utilitarian.

In any case, let's see his true intentions.

[gogeo]

They are related...cousins or something like that.

[jakerobins]

It is 100% class envy! The left is trying to paint the Estate Tax as a tax the rich are trying to avoid by getting it repealed. Just another tax break for the wealthy is all you'll hear. People need to counter this notion by showing regular people lose the most because of this tax. To see how the left is propagandizing this check out this AD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6599TbHprI&search=paris%20tax

Another "The world is going to end there going to take away Social Security and Medicare old people will be eating dog food scare tactic by the left.

[tarheelswamprat]

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.

I see Buffet, Soros and a certain select number of their so-called "super-rich" peers both present and past, as being contemporaneous implementations of the Cecil Rhodes/JP Morgan et al. template that the international left has used so effectively for the last century or so to influence or control public political policy through the indirect manipulation of wealth.

Granted, as individuals these people are usually intelligent, ambitious, hard-working and capable of earning great wealth, but there are limits to what they can achieve and maintain solely by their own efforts. There are plenty of wealthy people around the world, most of whom have probably earned it themselves, but if they aspire to enter the rarified realm of the so-called "super-rich" like Gates and Buffet, they quickly discover that there is an entrenched world-wide network of these "super-rich" whose connections, power and influence is so pervasive that they can either help the new prospective member of the "super-rich" club to succeed, or they can prevent it or even destroy them. In order to be admitted to the club the newcomer has to meet certain conditions, and sometimes perform certain duties which serve the collective in maintaining and extending its wealth and power.

While these people may have earned their initial fortunes through their own efforts, at some point the continued growth of their fortunes, or even their preservation in the face of the permutations and pitfalls of government laws and regulations requires the cooperation of that "super-rich" network. Whether the need is for financing for a new venture, or a compliant Senator or Congressman to introduce legislation removing an obstacle and smoothing the way, or maybe even a favorable ruling from a judge, the network has the necessary connections and clout.

The current news about Warren Buffet and the Gates seems to have surprised many, but I remember reading an article almost a decade ago describing how Warren Buffet had invited his new friend the "young" Bill Gates to travel with him on his private train through China, where they could enjoy a wonderful opportunity to sight-see and discuss "common interests". Thus, this week's announcements were not a surprise. On that China trip Gates was simply being admitted to the club and Buffet was conducting the orientation.

In a sense, there is a certain Faustian quality to the lives of people like Buffet and Gates, et al. where beyond a certain point they seem to abdicate/lose control of their fortunes in the service of "noble causes", and curiously, the overwhelming majority of these noble causes are leftist/socialist. Isn't that special?

[goldstategop]

Of course Warren Buffett wants to retain the death tax. He won't pay a single dime of it, thanks to high priced lawyers and shrewd accountants. But he wants to make sure no one gets to be as rich as he is. He's just another liberal elitist who's bent on protecting his cash cow at every one else's expense.

(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")

[goldstategop]

Yeah right and Buffett was lucky to emerge from the right womb. He's all for socialist consfiscation of inherited wealth... as long as his wealth is left alone. Just don't let his liberal hypocrisy detain you from wanting to have the same advantage he just obtained: namely that you should never have to pay a single dime of an immoral, illegal and oppressive tax. Watch what he does, not what says, on the death tax.

(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")

[tkathy]

For pity's sake, make a $3million limit on the estate tax.

Trump and Buffet should pay. This is another issue that makes Republicans look like they are in the pockets of the wealthy elites.

[linda_22003]

You can do the same, but you'd likely complain about it.

[linda_22003]

Then that would exclude him as well, since his name is not "Warren Buffet".

[aculeus]

Buffett owns Kirby Vacuums, overpriced pieces of junk sold door-to-door to lower middle class people by the sleaziest salesmen and saleswomen in the universe.