Buffett calls for higher taxes on US Super Rich
The wealthiest Americans should pay more income tax and make sacrifice to bring the Nation’s fiscal house in order, Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, said Monday.
“While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we Mega-Rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks,” Mr. Buffett said in an article carried on Monday’s The New York Times.
Mr. Buffett noted that he paid 17.4% of his taxable income for the federal income and payroll taxes last year, and the rate is even lower than the other 20 staff members working in his office.
With the Nation’s debt surging to an unsustainable level, experts charged that the Super Rich Americans did not make enough sacrifice for the Nation’s austerity efforts, as many of them are allowed to classify the major chunk of their income as “carried interest” and get a bargain 15% tax rate.
Back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, tax rates for the rich Americans were higher, he mentioned in the article entitled “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich”.
In Y 1992, the Top 400 wealthiest Americans had aggregate taxable income of US$16.9-B and paid federal taxes of 29.2% on that sum. But, in Y 2008, the aggregate income of the highest 400 soared to US$90.9-B, but the rate paid had fallen to 21.5%, he said.
“My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice,” Buffett said.
Paul A. Ebeling,
Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. writes and publishes The Red Roadmaster’s Technical Report on the US Major Market Indices, a weekly, highly-regarded financial market letter, read by opinion makers, business leaders and organizations around the world.