Billionaires should pay more taxes
Writing in the Washington Post, David Ignatius suggests the tide may be turning against the rich paying too small a percentage in their taxes:
Even the wealthy -- at least those with social consciences -- seem to share the new concern about restoring fairness to the tax system. The most prominent critic is mega-billionaire Warren Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway and a director of The Washington Post Co. He famously admonished his fellow moguls a month ago that they were paying a lower tax rate than the people who cleaned their offices -- and offered them $1 million if they could prove otherwise.A measure of just how rich the new financiers are is a list compiled annually by Alpha magazine of the top 25 hedge fund managers. Average earnings for these financial titans last year were $570 million, an increase of 57 percent from 2005. "In total, the top 25 earners raked in more than $14 billion, equivalent to the GDP of Jordan or Uruguay," writes Alpha. You read sentences like that and you wonder why there isn't a revolution against a global financial system that produces such disparities.
Warren Buffett pays 17% of his income in taxes. I pay a higher percentage than that. So do most other households in the U.S. That ain't right. And Buffett agrees.
Comments
When Warren Buffet pays 17% tax rate, what dollar amount is that?
How much does Buffett pay to the federal government in the forms of taxes?
I bet this is higher than most other Americans that are in higher tax brackets...
Posted by: Joe Investor | July 20, 2007 8:49 AM
Joe Investor - if that's really your name! :-) - Warren Buffett is in the highest tax bracket. As a percentage of his income he pays less than most Americans, but in terms of actual dollars, yes, he must pay more than most Americans. But I don't think there's anything wrong with that - he should be paying more in total dollars, and he should be paying a higher percentage, too. He's one of the wealthiest people in the world. It's just good tax policy to make rich people pay a fair share. And it wasn't until fiscal conservatives in the Congress, in the late 70s, decided that tax cuts were a bankable issue in elections, that Americans fell for the line of reasoning that rich people should pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes.
Reduce/stabilize the tax burden on "regular" Americans. Increase the tax burden on rich Americans. How does that not make sense?
Posted by: Mike | July 20, 2007 10:09 AM
Anybody at anytime can send a check to the US treasury. I'm tired of rich guys like Buffett compaining they are not paying enough. If they want to pay more, they should just do it, not wait for the government to force them.
Posted by: Bruce | October 12, 2007 8:43 PM
Might be a Revolution when the Poor & Disabled see Social Security being taken from them, while the fat & greedy refuse to even Pay for their Expensive Wars, much less anything else about a U.S. Government!! And deservedly so, in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson.
Posted by: Donny Sartain | October 24, 2007 8:43 AM