Charlie Rose with Warren Buffett: Stop Coddling the Super-Rich

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11845#

by pkaler • 15 years ago

12 11 15 years ago

charlierose.com

badwetter• 15 years ago

So refreshing to hear a wealthy man like Mr. Buffet say this! Helps President Obama too.

anamax4• 15 years ago

Warren Buffett doesn't have a significant income, so once again he's advocating taxes for other people.

If he holds true to form, he's also got a way to make money from other people paying higher tax rates. (He has investments that depend on the estate tax and has arranged things so his estate won't be taxed.)

If he think that his tax rate isn't high enough, he's free to write a check.

How about a tax that will hit him? For example, he likes to hold stocks "forever" and does a lot of tax-free exhanges, so there's "never" any tax on the gains. Why not require holding companies, like Berkshire, to do a "wash sale" and pay the resulting taxes on the oldest 5-10% of their portfolio every year. That way Buffet would pay some of the taxes that he thinks other people should pay.

scott_s• 15 years ago

Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

Sounds to me like he's saying "I should be taxed more than $6.9 million." He's rather specific at the end of his piece:

But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate.

From http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-...

anamax4• 15 years ago

> Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

That's unlikely, as those are the marginal bracket rates and the average rate for folks at the top of their bracket (let alone the bottom) are lower than the bracket rates. Their average rates were lower.

Meanwhile, his quoted rate is an average rate.

anamax4• 15 years ago

> But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

I'm pretty sure that he's wrong about their tax rates (or is using numbers that can't be compared to the rate he quotes for him).

From http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/08inratesharesnap.pdf .

"For returns reporting positive adjusted gross income, the top 1 percent of taxpayers had an average tax rate of 23.3 percent; the top 10 percent of taxpayers had an average tax rate of 18.7 percent; and the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers had an average tax rate of 2.6 percent."

Supporting data is at http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/indtaxstats/article/0,,id=96679,... .

MikeCapone2• 15 years ago

That's not what he's saying on taxes (he's saying that people who make their money from dividends and capital gains should be taxed at a higher rate), and he's given his money to the Gates Foundation (which will no doubt use it better than the US government), it's not like he's giving it to his heirs to form a dynasty, and voluntary taxes are never going to work so that's a strawman...

anamax4• 15 years ago

> he's given his money to the Gates Foundation (which will no doubt use it better than the US government)

Be careful there. If he spends his money better than the US govt, then isn't it possible that other people spend their money better than the US govt?

If so, then why are we giving their money to the US govt?

sever• 15 years ago

"If he think that his tax rate isn't high enough, he's free to write a check."

When you try to make the rules of the game better, you don't personally start playing by the new rules, you try to make the rules of the game better.

dublinclontarf• 15 years ago

Why is this on the front page again, it was here yesterday.

Charlie Rose with Warren Buffett: Stop Coddling the Super-Rich

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