Warren Buffett’s Taxing Day
A Pro Publica report on how much U.S. billionaires pay in taxes, and (surprise) it's a lot less than you and I pay.
America’s billionaires had a tough day Tuesday. Pro Publica published a story based on what it called “IRS information” related to income tax paid by some of the country’s richest people. Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, Elon Musk and George Soros were among the people named in Pro Publica’s report.
Between 2014 and 2018, for example, Buffett’s personal wealth grew by $24.3 billion, and he reported total income of $125 million, on which he paid $23.7 million in taxes. That’s a tax rate of 0.1%, according to Pro Publica.
The report does not claim that the super-rich evade taxes: “[B]illionaires don’t have to evade taxes exotically and illicitly–they can avoid them routinely and legally.”
Meanwhile, Insider Monkey, a website devoted to keeping track of hedge funds, published a story reviewing Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s (NYSE: BRK-B | BRK-B Price Prediction) portfolio of 48 stocks and detailing Buffett’s top 10 holdings.
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Here’s the list, including the value of Buffett’s stake and the stock’s percentage share in his portfolio.
- Apple: $108.36 billion; 40.07%
- Bank of America: $39.08 billion; 14.45%
- American Express: $21.44 billion; 7.92%
- Coca-Cola: $21.08 billion; 7.79%
- Kraft-Heinz: $13.03 billion; 4.81%
- Verizon: $9.24 billion; 3.41%
- Moody’s: $7.37 billion; 2.72%
- U.S. Bancorp: $7.17 billion; 2.65%
- DaVita: $3.89 billion; 1.43%
- General Motors: $3.85 billion; 1.42%
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
