Freedom Line Blog

So Warren Buffett, who falsely claims that the wealthiest Americans pay lower tax rates than their receptionists, finally got around to disclosing (some) of his tax information.

It turns out that he paid approximately $7 million in federal income taxes from a taxable income of approximately $40 million.  That’s approximately 17.5%, substantially more than the 12% rate paid by the middle quintile of taxpayers in America, according to the Tax Policy Center.  Interestingly, Buffett’s $40 million taxable income was also significantly smaller than his total $63 million in gross income, but he apparently didn’t bother to explain that $23 million gap.

On top of all that, Buffett also apparently didn’t explain why he took any deductions at all, or why he didn’t simply pay more to the federal government if he felt that he was undertaxed.  Nobody is stopping him from putting his money where his mouth is, after all.  So the evidence suggests that Buffett is not only incorrect, but hypocritical.