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.”