Warren Buffett has a long history of making inflammatory, false, and politically motivated assertions regarding United States federal taxation matters. Here are but a few:
(1) In 2011, he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which he stated that his 2010 “federal tax rate” (as he defined it) of 21% was far less than the 36% rate paid by his office workers. This incendiary assertion became the basis of the “Buffett Rule”, a failed tax proposal introduced by Barack Obama in late 2011 under which individuals making $1 million per year would be subject to a 30% minimum federal tax.
But Buffett’s “federal tax rate” assertion was completely wrong. He included taxes that he shouldn’t have (employee and employer-paid Social Security taxes) and excluded massive taxes that he should have included (his share, as a 33% owner of Berkshire-Hathaway’s 2010 federal taxes paid). When looked at correctly, Buffett’s 2010 “federal tax rate” was roughly 10 percentage points higher than the rate paid by his office workers.
Buffett’s NYT op-ed is perhaps the most disingenuous tax analysis ever published. A fawning and sycophantic press never took the time to research, analyze, and dissect Buffett’s assertions. They simply carried the ball for him, straight into the halls of Congress.
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