Warren Buffet: Part Duex ... He says the rich need to pay more taxes...

[rudder]

but that has not stopped him from fighting a billion dollar tax bill that his company owes the IRS.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/how...thaway-back-tax-bill-exactly-about-1-billion/

Yes, I could have appended the other thread... but I think this hypocrisy dictates it's own thread. So Buffet becomes the mouthpiece of the obama adminstration, yet he could simply pay more taxes by calling off his team of lawyers (who are using every tax trick in the book to fight this). No telling how much this fight, that has gone on since 2002, has cost taxpayers. Yeh yeh blah buffet wasn't talking about corporations.. write the damn check warren.

obama's illegal immigrant dui getting uncle... Warren Buffet.. you just can't make stuff like this up.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Might want to at least change the title so it doesn't mirror the other thread. I find the tax delinquency story an interesting one given his statements about taxing him more.

 

[Ausm]

Posting before the rabid right wing descends on this juicy piece of red meat

Oh he is a Businessman so the righties should leave him alone

 

[CWRMadcat]

This is an issue with Berkshire Hathaway, not Warren Buffett's personal taxes. There is nothing wrong with companies or individuals trying to legally minimize their taxes.

 

[frostedflakes]

And you know he takes advantage of every deduction available just like everyone else to reduce his personal tax liability as well.

If Buffett thinks he has too much money, he's free to give it away, not sure why he thinks the only way to deal with his overabundance of money is to have the government take more of it. He could take $10 million and donate it to soup kitchens, homeless shelters, etc. and it would do far more good for society than letting the bureaucrats in Washington waste it on missiles in Afghanistan or some other nonsense.

 

[matt0611]

This is an issue with Berkshire Hathaway, not Warren Buffett's personal taxes. There is nothing wrong with companies or individuals trying to legally minimize their taxes.

Buffet is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway if I recall. And how is simply not paying taxes that you owe "minimizing taxes"?

 

[rudder]

This is an issue with Berkshire Hathaway, not Warren Buffett's personal taxes. There is nothing wrong with companies or individuals trying to legally minimize their taxes.

Warren Buffet's earnings come from Berkshire Hathaway. And no there is not anything wrong with legally trying to minimize taxes. I itemize on my returns... but then again I am not writing editorials to major newspapers saying rich people should pay more taxes.

 

[Craig234]

If Buffett thinks he has too much money, he's free to give it away, not sure why he thinks the only way to deal with his overabundance of money is to have the government take more of it. He could take $10 million and donate it to soup kitchens, homeless shelters, etc. and it would do far more good for society than letting the bureaucrats in Washington waste it on missiles in Afghanistan or some other nonsense.

It's incorrect to say that the government doesn't do a lot of good with they money (the better the politicians, the better is does), to imply it's all 'wasted on missiles'.

I was thinking about this tonight.

'The government thinks it can better spend my money on police than I can'.

'The government thinks it can better spend my money on hurricane detection than I can'.

'The government thinks it can better spend my money on regulating product safety than I can'.

And similar for many thousands of examples. And yes, in fact, it CAN spend the money on all kinds of activities better than I could.

We all as individuals would change the budget; but as a society, it does a lot of what the people want.

The line 'the government thinks it can spend money better' is nothing but rhetoric - it sounds good, but the attack doesn't hold up that well.

Rather, specific programs, especially involving 'corruption', can be criticized - but the general rhetoric is just to manipulate simple people to make the rich richer.

 

[glenn1]

This is an issue with Berkshire Hathaway, not Warren Buffett's personal taxes. There is nothing wrong with companies or individuals trying to legally minimize their taxes.

It's not hypocrisy - as the Chairman and CEO of BRK, he has a fiduciary obligation to minimize the amount of taxes paid by the company. If he didn't, he could and would rightfully be sued by the shareholders.

That's not to say he can't and shouldn't pony up a big check to the "Gifts to the U.S. Treasury to pay down the national debt" department out of his personal account though.

 

[CWRMadcat]

Buffet is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway if I recall. And how is simply not paying taxes that you owe "minimizing taxes"?

There was a dispute with the IRS regarding how much the tax liability actually was. That happens often enough with large corporations. Nothing in the article suggests that Berkshire was unwilling to pay taxes that were not in dispute. I'm not seeing the hypocrisy.

 

[CWRMadcat]

Warren Buffet's earnings come from Berkshire Hathaway. And no there is not anything wrong with legally trying to minimize taxes. I itemize on my returns... but then again I am not writing editorials to major newspapers saying rich people should pay more taxes.

You can certainly advocate for higher taxes on the wealthy while minimizing your tax liability under the current income tax structure....I'm not seeing the hypocrisy that you're trying to attribute to Buffett.

Now if income taxes are raised and he tried to hide his income in illegal tax shelters, then your claim of hypocrisy would make perfect sense.

 

[silverpig]

You can certainly advocate for higher taxes on the wealthy while minimizing your tax liability under the current income tax structure....I'm not seeing the hypocrisy that you're trying to attribute to Buffett.

Now if income taxes are raised and he tried to hide his income in illegal tax shelters, then your claim of hypocrisy would make perfect sense.

Pretty much this. And as CEO of Berkshire as glenn said, he has the duty to maximize profit. He gets in shit if he doesn't do that.