at 20%-25% tax rate you are being taxed on profits(income) like workers on median income or less. you are lucky to be receiving lower tax rate than the rest of taxes that the middle class workers have to pay 40% large portion of taxes just go to pay the interest on the gov't debt only. as with offshore tax loopholes,,,the taxman is going shut it down or crackdown on it too as there is complete imbalance in tax revenue and gov't expenditures. no free lunches. remember that. somebody has to pay the bills in hard cold cash. wesley snipes in prision for tax evasion...i'm sure he is in the 40% tax bracket.
In the chapter on "Opportunity," Obama tells of a meeting he had with Warren Buffett who thinks it's a terrible thing that his capital gains are taxed at only 15% and who thinks that the rich should be giving their "fair share" of taxes to provide for education, the infrastructure, and a safety net for those who aren't doing as well. Mr. Buffett, feel free to add all the zeroes you want on your next tax payment and start all the educational foundations and give all the scholarships you wish. I'm sure Omaha would be willing to let you pay for its next roads project (they might even name it after you!), and there are all kinds of charitable organizations that would be willing to help you disperse your wealth. Buffett also opposes the idea of eliminating the estate tax, telling Obama, "you're basically handing over command of the country's resources to people who didn't earn it. It's like choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the children of all the winners at the 2000 Games." The way I see it, what Buffett proposes is taking the gold medals from the winners of the 2000 Games and giving them to people who didn't qualify for the 2020 competition. http://voices.kansascity.com/node/871
Buffett has famously stated that he won't invest in a business he doesn't understand. He is also reknowned for carefully analyzing the books of businesses before buying them. He would have saved himself a lot of embarrassment if he had applied those principles before announcing his ideas for tax policy. Clearly he doesn't understand the simple point that tax revenues, as well as economic growth, are maximized by favorable cap gains rates. The data make this point clearly. His disciple Obama stumbled over this in the last debate when the moderator pressed him on why he wanted to raise rates when history has shown that increases cost the government tax revenue. No doubt Buffett, like Obama, would retreat to the fairness red herring. As far as I know, Buffett is an expert on finance, not fairness. His opinion on what is fair is no more valuable, and probably a lot less, than the average voter's. Is it fair that he makes 100 or 1000 or maybe 10,000 times the average worker's salary? Many would say no, but he obviously disagrees. He made the point that he felt bad about paying a lower rate than his secretary. I doubt he made up for it by grossing up her salary. He, Gates and the whole limo liberal crowd are hypocrites, lecturing those trying to save enough to get some minimal security while they themselves spend a small fortune on lawyers to avoid taxes. When Buffett and his liberal pals disband their private foundations and hand their loot over to the government, I'll listen to them. Until then, I'll call them the worst kind of hypocrites.
cnbc is back at it today. all buffet. unbelievable. becky quick doesn't ask 1 hard question. here's 1 becky. "What do you think the small investor would say to you about your idea of raising capital gains up to as high as 25% as you told obama it was good to do and that he now uses your quote as justification to his capital gains tax hike raise of up to 50% of its current levels?"
So tired of seeing buffet on cnbc, do they have anything better, hes been pumped up on cnbc for the last 2 weeks, why?? The interview with him and becky was just too boring, the questions were horrible and his answers just okay.....I hope there done with buffet for now.
Perhaps losing $1.2 billion shorting put options has put him on tilt. http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/05/buffett-loses-12-billion-shorting-put.html