Another fat cat liberal decries the fact that he is allowed to make so much money and pay his secretary only 60 thousand dollars a year.
Woops, guess this article didn’t say that. Silly me. What it does say is that Warren Buffet, the 3rd richest man in the world is hopping mad that he is only taxed at a 17% rate while his 60 grand a year secretary is taxed at 30%.
Speaking at a $4,600-a-seat fundraiser in New York for Senator Hillary Clinton, Mr Buffett, who is worth an estimated $52 billion (£26 billion), said: “The 400 of us [here] pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.”
Mr Buffett said that he was taxed at 17.7 per cent on the $46 million he made last year, without trying to avoid paying higher taxes, while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30 per cent.
I don’t hear the rich socialist liberals like Hillary Clinton getting upset about a man who is worth 52 billion only paying his secretary 60 grand, but that’s beside the point. This is a free society and he has every right to pay what he chooses. What I question is this figure of 30%.
Well, I don’t question it as much as think it’s pure lunacy. There is no way a person making 60 grand a year can be paying at a 30% rate. Investors Business Daily agrees:
Sounds unjust, if true. But we don’t know what tax system Buffett is looking at. It certainly isn’t the one we use here in the U.S. We went to the IRS’ Web site and used its tax calculator. We put in various incomes, from $50,000 to $350,000 a year — the latter being quite a bit for a secretary to make in Omaha.
So there’s no funny business, we gave this fictional person no deductions other than the personal one. That is, no IRAs, no 401(k)s, no children, no mortgage, no nothing. Virtually no one fits that profile, but at least we can’t be accused of skewing the data.
Here’s what we found: At $50,000, the IRS asks for 13.5% of your income. At $75,000, it’s 17.3%. You can keep going all the way to about $350,000 before you’re in spitting distance (28.4%) of what Buffett’s secretary supposedly pays.
Only if you add in the 6.2% that employees pay for Social Security — which would be cheating, since if she started working before 2000 she’ll get that money back — can you reasonably come close to 30%. And that kicks in at an income of just over $190,000.
Going farther then the Investor Business Daily, Larry Elder had some tax professionals on his radio show today and went through a bunch of different scenarios.
- A single women with no kids, with no IRA contributions, and takes a standard deduction, her rate would be 15.7%.
- A single women with one kid, a 4 grand IRA deduction, and takes the standard deduction, rate is 8%.
- A single homeowner with two kids, a 4 grand IRA deduction, and this time she itemizes 10 grand, her rate is 4.8%.
- A married homeowner with two kids and a unemployed spouse, itemizes with a IRA deduction, her rate would be 2.4%.
Add in state income taxes you would still not get anywhere near 30%. Now the only way it could be close is if her spouse made 120 grand and they just claimed a standard deduction. Combined they make 180 grand. But nowhere in his speech does he allude to that, in fact he makes it perfectly clear she only makes 60 grand.
This is just a typical liberal tactic of using class envy to generate support among the poor. Why lower taxes to put more money into the pockets of the poor when you can raise taxes and give out more welfare. Get them on the rolls and they are Democrats forever.
All about power.
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Buffet fails to point out that he can pay more money to the government. He could buy government bonds and then never collect. He could also write a check to the federal government or any state or city government. He could send money directly into paying off the national debt by sending money to:
Attn Dept G
Bureau Of the Public Debt
P. O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188
$2.27 million has already been sent there in 2007. Maybe he could send in $2.27 billion.
Another way you _might_ come up with that figure is if the secretary’s husband makes the 120K, and her 60K results in an increase of taxes so that effectively – since her income is an add on and starts being taxed at the level her husband’s stops – she is paying nearly 30%(and of course, he’d round up).
I worked for H&R Block in the state of Virginia many long years ago, and Va -at least at that time – allowed a couple to separate out their income and taxed each from 0. Most people were put off doing this by the two columns – didn’t know what to do with them – and as a result, Block could advertise that they guaranteed better returns on past taxes. Usually worked.
Federal tax does not allow this – the tax is cumulative. Two income families would get an immediate tax reduction if this feature was changed on the 1040 form.
Trackbacked by The Thunder Run – Web Reconnaissance for 07/03/2007
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
Its about Victimhood and Dependency.
Here’s the four steps to Democrats Rule
1) Tell everyone they are a victim in one form or another
2) Tell them that the government is the only one able to save them
3) Tell them that Democrats are the only ones willing to save them and the Republicans are deliberately neglecting them
4) Give out some handouts or pass some regulation that will exist perpetually. Never attempt as a one-time fix. This will create Dependency.
The reason you need to tell them they are a victims is that Americans have a heritage of self-reliance. They resist taking handouts. (or used to). Telling them they’ve been wronged and this is compensation will help cut through that heritage.
Once you get them on the pogy many will become Dependant on it. You will have an adherent for life. Dependency = Control. People become hesitant to bite the hand that feeds them.
Unfortunately I think we’ve reached critical mass. I also think the school system and media has also helped eliminate our heritage of self-reliance. You can see this by the elevation & celebration of the victim over the self-reliant or even the heroic.
Poor Warren Buffett … may be he should instruct his tax accountants and tax attorneys not to shelter his earnings and assets so he can pay more taxes than his secretary.
Even better, he can contribute to my retirement so I wouldn’t have to worry about it. Much better, he can contribute to everyone’s retirement so that we all don’t have to worry.
I found this quite interesting when I stumbled across it a couple of days ago. What Warren fails to point out is that he’ll never pay a dime in taxes on his $50 billion. It’s sheltered (Gates foundation, primarily). Seems he doesn’t trust the government with his (real) money anymore than the rest. He’s really quite a pompous ass. I’ve got mine, screw the rest of you. And what kind of a billionaire jerk pays his secretary $60k?
There’s way more to this story wrt to Buffet and his support for the death tax, for example. Suffice to say that that his insurance holdings are some of the prime beneficiaries of the current law. They sell enormously profitable annuities which allow the transfer of assets tax free to the beneficiaries. Problem is, you can’t annuitize a family farm or business, but he doesn’t care. The status quo works for him.