Warren Buffett: Raise Income Taxes On Top 0.3% of Taxpayers

In a New York Times op-ed article (August 15, 2011), Warren Buffett recommends raising taxes on those with taxable incomes exceeding $1 million.  This would affect only the top 0.3% of taxpayers.  “I would leave rates for 99.7% of taxpayers unchanged…”

Warren Buffett reveals in this article that he paid federal taxes of $6.9 million in 2010, which equalled 17.4% of his taxable income.  This would imply that his taxable income equalled $39.9 million in 2010.  Mr. Buffett’s total compensation from Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) contributed only $525,000 to his taxable income.  (Source:  BRK 2010 Proxy Statement.)   The vast majority of his income presumably resulted from dividends and capital gains from his investments that are taxed at 15%.   “I paid only 17.4% 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.”

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *