Warren Buffet on the Tax System
October 31, 2007
From Huffington Post:
Warren Buffett sat down with Tom Brokaw on “NBC Nightly News” last night to discuss his problems with the US tax structure. He described an informal poll of his office, where the average tax rate was 32.9 percent, compared to his 17.7 percent, citing that as evidence that “the tax system has titled toward the rich in the last 10 years.”
This is probably correct and doesn’t surprise me at all – Warren Buffet pays tax at approximately half the rate that his secretary does. That’s how it works, that’s how it’s designed to work, that’s the elephant in the kitchen, the thing we walk around and never discuss. The rich are not overtaxed – the middle is.
October 31, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Mark: This is a pretty good review of the issue.
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2007/06/mr-buffetts-tax-bill.html
November 1, 2007 at 7:55 am
Mankiw is blind, as are most academics and bureaucrats who speak for the wealthy, to the fact that wages are double-taxed, which is why Buffet’s secretary is paying twice the tax that he is. He sees only the plight of the wealthy – corporations pay tax too! Dividends are not deductible. But what rate of taxation do corporations pay? Certainly not the 35% he alludes to. The corporate share of the tax burden has plummeted from 24% in the 1960’s, to 7% now – the reason – overgenerous loopholes and tax havens. Mankiw is blinded by the light.