Based On Their Wealth Growth, 26 Top Billionaires Paid An Average Income Tax Rate Of Just 4.8%

Mod: But whatever you do, don't call them oligarchs. 

Based On Their Wealth Growth, 26 Top Billionaires Paid An Average Income Tax Rate Of Just 4.8% Over 6 Recent Years (Americans For tax Fairnesslink): Twenty-six of the richest people in America paid an average federal income tax rate of just 4.8% over six years (2013-18) when the growth in their wealth is counted as income, according to Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) using IRS tax-payment information recently released by ProPublica and billionaire wealth growth data from Forbes. 

This revelation underscores the need to tax billionaires and other ultra-wealthy Americans more effectively, as proposed in plans from President Biden and Congressional Democrats. 

The 26 billionaires’ collective wealth grew by $500 billion between 2013 and 2018 while their total federal income taxes were just $24 billion. The taxes paid were not based on wealth growth, which under current law is not taxed, but rather on “taxable income”: wages, private business earnings, dividends, interest, profits from the sale of stocks and other investments, and other sources. As is usual among the ultra-wealthy, that taxable income—in this case, $132.2 billion—is far smaller than their leap in fortunes.

At the scale enjoyed by billionaires, growth in the value of assets—even if those assets are not sold—can be as good as money in the bank, which Elon Musk is putting to good effect in his purchase of Twitter. Among their other advantages, those gains can be used to secure low-interest loans that fund lavish lifestyles without owing income tax. 

So including the increased value of unsold assets when figuring the share of income paid in federal income taxes provides what ProPublica in a separate report last year dubbed a “true tax rate.” That report identified six billionaires paying no taxes some years or very low tax rates—this ATF analysis expands the list to 26.

Notable names that paid less than a 2% tax rate based on their wealth growth include: Warren Buffett (0.1%), Jeff Bezos (1.1%), Mark Zuckerberg (1.1%), Charles and David Koch (1.3% and 1.4%, respectively), and Michael Bloomberg (1.8% ). Elon Musk paid a mere 2.1% tax rate. 

Mod: Much more at the link.

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