主题： Taxes

An earned income Tax Credit, I think, is the best way of both guaranteeing that people have a reasonable amount in their pocket even if they’re working at jobs where the market … wouldn’t pay that much. And it also keeps the dignity of work there. And it also encourages people to improve their skills because as you move up, you keep more of the money.

Anybody that thinks our corporate taxes are too high should look at a chart of corporate taxes as a percentage of GDP since World War II, and it’s come down from 4 percent of GDP to 2 percent of GDP, while many other forms of taxes have, obviously, increased. And American business earnings on net tangible assets, which is the way to measure profitability overall, you know, it’s basically the envy of the world.… And our tax rates now for corporations are far lower than when Charlie and I were operating. And American business actually was doing pretty good then.

You can take the rate down and make it revenue neutral by knocking out all those special things. I have nothing against that. That would benefit Berkshire, frankly, but I will tell you, if it’s going to be revenue neutral, it means just as many people are going to have their taxes increased as decreased, and the ones that are going to have them increased are going to be flooding the Capitol with lobbyists. If it’s going to be revenue neutral, that means billions and billions and billions more are going to come from some companies, because we’re going to pay less at Berkshire.

Every line in the tax code is there because someone was fighting for it. The people who care about that line are concentrated and focused on it, and people who are affected by that line are diffused and really not even aware of it.

The tax law has been shaped not by logic, but by K Street.

In the last 25 years, the Forbes 400 list has had its net worth increase nine for one.… That is not happening with the American people generally, and it’s happening during a time when those same rich people have had their tax rates go down, down, down. And I think that when we’re talking to 312 million Americans about shared sacrifice and taking away things we promised to them … it’s time for the ultrarich to share in that sacrifice to some degree.… I mean, you change the Social Security rule somewhat and millions of people will feel it, they’ll really feel it. You change the Medicare rules and millions of people will feel it. You get a minimum tax of 30 or 35 percent on incomes of a million or 10 million or over, the truth is, those people won’t even feel it. But at least the American people, as a whole, will feel somehow that the ultrarich have been asked to participate to a small degree in this overall sacrifice that we’re all going to be asked to participate in.

It’s very important in terms of getting people to make the kind of sacrifices they’re going to face. We’re going to be telling people that some of the promises are going to have to be modified, and these are people that don’t have a lot of margin of safety in their own affairs. They’re not like me, they can’t just sell a few stocks or something like that if the payment doesn’t come through or this or that. The ultrarich who are paying really subnormal taxes—and there’s a lot of them that aren’t, but there are a lot of them that are—I think it’s a terrible mistake to ask 300 million Americans to tighten their belts and ignore that group.

I’d rather have some home run that was hit in Yankee Stadium named after me. You know, “That was the Buffett Home Run” or something of the sort.

The better answer [to income inequality] is a major and carefully crafted expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which currently goes to millions of low-income workers. Payments to eligible workers diminish as their earnings increase. But there is no disincentive effect: A gain in wages always produces a gain in overall income. The process is simple: You file a tax return, and the government sends you a check.

I have paid federal income tax every year since 1944, when I was 13. (Though, being a slow starter, I owed only $7 in tax that year.) I have copies of all 72 of my returns and none uses a carryforward. Finally, I have been audited by the IRS multiple times and am currently being audited. I have no problem in releasing my tax information while under audit. Neither would Mr. Trump—at least he would have no legal problem.