c*****r
发帖数: 8227 | 1 Warren Buffett's Tax Dodge
The billionaire volunteers the middle class for a tax increase.
Barney Kilgore, the man who made the Wall Street Journal into a national
publication, was once asked why so many rich people favored higher taxes.
That's easy, he replied. They already have their money.
That insight is worth recalling amid the latest political duet from
President Obama and Warren Buffett demanding higher taxes on "millionaires
and billionaires." Mr. Buffett is repeating his now familiar argument this
week, coinciding with Mr. Obama's Midwestern road trip on the economy. Since
the media are treating Mr. Buffett as a tax oracle, let's take a closer
look at some of the billionaire's intellectual tax dodges.
• The double tax oversight. The Berkshire Hathaway magnate makes much
of the fact that he paid only 17.4% of his income in taxes, which he
considers unfair when salaried workers often pay more. But Mr. Buffett makes
most of his income from his investments, in particular from dividends and
capital gains that are taxed at a rate of 15%.
What he doesn't say is that much of his income was already taxed once as
corporate income, which is assessed at a 35% rate (less deductions). The 15%
levy on capital gains and dividends to individuals is thus a double tax
that takes the overall tax rate on that corporate income closer to 45%.
This onerous tax on capital is a U.S. competitive disadvantage in the global
economy, which is why Congress agreed in 2003 to cut the rates on dividends
and capital gains. Even as the rest of the world is cutting tax rates on
corporate income, Mr. Buffett wants to raise U.S. rates in a way that would
make America less attractive for investment. Under a sensible tax reform,
the feds would impose either a corporate tax or a dividend and capital gains
tax, but not both.
• The middle-class bait-and-switch. Like Mr. Obama, Mr. Buffett speaks
about raising taxes only on the rich. But somehow he ignores that the
President's tax increase starts at $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for
couples. Mr. Obama ought to call them "thousandaires," but that probably
doesn't poll as well.
The President needs to levy his tax increase at such a lower income level
because that's where the money is. In 2009, 237,000 taxpayers reported
income above $1 million and they paid $178 billion in taxes. A mere 8,274
filers reported income above $10 million, and they paid only $54 billion in
taxes.
But 3.92 million reported income above $200,000 in 2009, and they paid $434
billion in taxes. To put it another way, roughly 90% of the tax filers who
would pay more under Mr. Obama's plan aren't millionaires, and 99.99% aren't
billionaires.
Mr. Buffett says it's only "fair" to raise his taxes, but he's lending his
credibility to raising taxes on millions of middle-class earners for whom a
few extra thousand dollars in after-tax income is a big deal. Unlike Mr.
Buffett, those middle-class earners aren't rich and may earn $250,000 for
only a few years of their working lives. How is that fair?
• The charity loophole. For billionaires like Mr. Buffett, the single
most important deduction in the tax code is for charitable giving. Middle-
class earners can't give nearly as much money away to reduce their overall
tax burden. Yet we don't hear Mr. Buffett calling for the elimination of
that deduction in the name of fairness.
Mr. Buffett has also already sheltered the bulk of his fortune from federal
taxes by putting them into a foundation that will give the money away. That'
s an act of generosity, but if the government's purposes are so vital, why
doesn't he simply give the money to the IRS?
Rebecca Quick of CNBC put that question to Mr. Buffett in 2007. His answer:
"Well, that's a choice and it's an option . . . If I had to give it to a
single individual, or make some young Buffett a multibillionaire, or give it
to the government, I'd absolutely give it to the government. I think that
on balance the Gates Foundation, my daughter's foundation, my two sons'
foundations will do a better job with lower administrative costs and better
selection of beneficiaries than the government."
Mr. Buffett is no doubt right about the relative efficiency of private
donors, but should billionaire philanthropists get such a large tax
preference? Another case of fairness?
Mr. Buffett is one of the great stock-pickers of his time, and we don't
begrudge him a single dollar of his wealth. We only wish that, having
already made himself rich, he weren't so intent on making it harder for
others to become rich too. If he's worried about being undertaxed, we'd
suggest he simply write a big check to Uncle Sam and go back to his day job
of picking investments. | L****S
发帖数: 89 | 2 老巴已经决定身后裸捐 任何象本文这样的乖戾小人之文总是让人觉得苍白无力 | c*****r
发帖数: 8227 | 3 Mr. Buffett has also already sheltered the bulk of his fortune from federal
taxes by putting them into a foundation that will give the money away. That'
s an act of generosity, but if the government's purposes are so vital, why
doesn't he simply give the money to the IRS?
Rebecca Quick of CNBC put that question to Mr. Buffett in 2007. His answer:
"Well, that's a choice and it's an option . . . If I had to give it to a
single individual, or make some young Buffett a multibillionaire, or give it
to the government, I'd absolutely give it to the government. I think that
on balance the Gates Foundation, my daughter's foundation, my two sons'
foundations will do a better job with lower administrative costs and better
selection of beneficiaries than the government."
Mr. Buffett is no doubt right about the relative efficiency of private
donors, but should billionaire philanthropists get such a large tax
preference? Another case of fairness?
【在 L****S 的大作中提到】
: 老巴已经决定身后裸捐 任何象本文这样的乖戾小人之文总是让人觉得苍白无力
| w**j
发帖数: 1032 | 4 Gates' foundation has been doing some good work around the world.
Even though Buffet is rich, he writes a check to the government won't make
a
dent in the deficiency.
If you are not as generous as him, i found it odd for you to criticize his
motives. No wonder you longs for a recession.
you want the government to bankrupt, the unemployment rate to sky-racket,
so you can profit from shorting. You did not even pretend to be 善. | x**r
发帖数: 2377 | 5 Buffet这样能博名，虽然自己的税率高了，可是大家都高了，人家能根政府搞好关系，
获取更大的利益，看看金融危机bail out的都是谁吧，现在失业的又都是谁？所以你们
这些WSN就不要跟着起哄了！
【在 L****S 的大作中提到】
: 老巴已经决定身后裸捐 任何象本文这样的乖戾小人之文总是让人觉得苍白无力
| c*****r
发帖数: 8227 | 6 Motivations are important. So we have to ask why Buffett is an Obama
Democrat. We know that is life is consumed by his efforts to make money and
otherwise indulge himself, which is ok so long as he doesn't break any laws.
Note, first, that Obama has awarded Buffett some kind of medal at a White
House ceremony that is frequently replayed on cable TV.
Then look at the kind of businesses he's in. Regulated utilities, a railroad
, home building, home building supplies, consumer and industrial goods and
regulated and unregulated insurance industries. The private aircraft that he
rents to Hollywood stars and uses himself use federally subsidized airports.
All of these companies benefit from huge tax subsidies and credits as well
as from other government subsidies that are supported by Obama Democrats.
They also benefit from over regulation, which keeps new entrants from taking
on some of his most profitable businesses.
No doubt, many of Buffett's more than 200 companies sell a lot of stuff and
services to the Feds and to companies and local governments that depend on
federal funding. Buffett wants to keep that money flowing.
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is buying the Marmon Group, enriching Peggy
Pritzker, a top fundraiser for Obama, and her family. What kind of conflicts
of interest does Buffett have in that deal?
Buffett made billions betting on Obama's favorites, General Electrick and
Goldman Sachs, which Bush and Obama bailed out.
Buffett is a Big Business Guy who loves a Big Business, Big Labor and a Big
Government president like Obama.
Everything Buffett does is done for money. There is no question that he
wants the government to raise spending and taxes so that his investments pay
off better and better as the taxing and spending grows.
Finally, Buffett is the most self-promoting Big Business CEO in the world.
His backing for higher taxes is just another way to get him on TV. | c*****r
发帖数: 8227 | 7 As many have asked - why is it so important to him that OTHER "rich" people
pay more in taxes? I expect that the answer is his belief that he's smarter
than those other people, or more correctly that those other people are not
as smart as him, so that they aren't to be trusted to efficiently use the
money they earned. He's put his money into charitable foundations so that he
can control how his hard-earned money is used, so he trusts himself more
than the government.
So, in Buffett's world, he, Gates and their ilk are smarter than politicians
, but politicians are smarter than the rest of us. Given the level of
contempt he shows in this attitude, why should we defer to his judgment on
this subject? | w*****4
发帖数: 709 | 8 为什么大家都骂巴菲？
原因只有一个因为他做的好，做的对！
瞧瞧这些骂人和转贴的人， 都是一副什么嘴脸？
下贱的嘴脸。不想缴税，你成立基金呀，什么都不想干，还不缴税。还骂人。 ！！！ | s*********4
发帖数: 1980 | 9 一个已经活不了几年的世界名人兼裸捐慈善家还需要博什么名和利吗?
【在 x**r 的大作中提到】
: Buffet这样能博名，虽然自己的税率高了，可是大家都高了，人家能根政府搞好关系，
: 获取更大的利益，看看金融危机bail out的都是谁吧，现在失业的又都是谁？所以你们
: 这些WSN就不要跟着起哄了！
| N********n
发帖数: 8363 | 10
Nah. It's not that people need to pay more tax. It's these far-left lazy
parasites need to stop sucking money away from other productive people
and live on their own. That way they don't have to ask government all the
time to rob the hard working people for them.
【在 w*****4 的大作中提到】
: 为什么大家都骂巴菲？
: 原因只有一个因为他做的好，做的对！
: 瞧瞧这些骂人和转贴的人， 都是一副什么嘴脸？
: 下贱的嘴脸。不想缴税，你成立基金呀，什么都不想干，还不缴税。还骂人。 ！！！
| M********4
发帖数: 1272 | 11 Warren Buffet cannot make money in the secular bear market. He was bailed
out in the 2008-2009 crash. That tells a lot about his investment IQ.
【在 s*********4 的大作中提到】
: 一个已经活不了几年的世界名人兼裸捐慈善家还需要博什么名和利吗?
| M********4
发帖数: 1272 | 12 really? I doubt it ...
【在 L****S 的大作中提到】
: 老巴已经决定身后裸捐 任何象本文这样的乖戾小人之文总是让人觉得苍白无力
| c*****r
发帖数: 8227 | 13 希望大家看到这厮最近上窜下跳的用意：市场一旦崩溃，他的金融皮包公司Berkshire
Hathaway Inc（financial derivatives)必将尸骨无存。
对他来说，就是要绑架更多的人到这即将沉没的漏船上。
“世人啊，醒醒！我是爱你们的！" |
|
