Honoring his friend Warren Buffett by naming a tax bill after him is ironic, Buffett's tax payment method is "Don't Pay". According to Berkshire Hathaway’s own annual report — see Note 15 on pp. 54-56 — the company has been in a years-long dispute over its federal tax bills.
According to the report, “We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments proposed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (‘IRS’) for the 2002 through 2004 tax years at the IRS Appeals Division within the next 12 months. The IRS has completed its examination of our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2005 and 2006 tax years and the proposed adjustments are currently being reviewed by the IRS Appeals Division process. The IRS is currently auditing our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2007 through 2009 tax years.” That report, in turn, was cited in an editorial in The New York Post. Buffett has stated he would be happy to pay more taxes, he just didn't say when he would pay them. His company has been dragging their heels on paying
Obama calls on Congress to pass ‘Buffett Rule’ tax..
WASHINGTON (AP)—President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to increase taxes on millionaires, reviving a proposal he first pitched last September that aims to draw sharp election-year lines between the president and the Republican opposition.
The plan, scheduled for a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate on April 16, stands little chance of passing in Congress. But it is a prominent symbol of the efforts the president and congressional Democrats are making to portray themselves as champions of economic fairness. Republicans dismiss the idea as a political stunt with little real effect on the budget.
“We don’t envy success in this country. We aspire to it,” Obama said in his Saturday radio and Internet address. “But we also believe that anyone who does well for themselves should do their fair share in return, so that more people have the opportunity to get ahead — not just a few.”
Obama calls the plan the “Buffett Rule” for Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who has complained that rich people like him pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than middle-class taxpayers. Many wealthy taxpayers earn investment income, which is taxed at 15 percent.Obama has proposed that people earning at least $1 million annually should pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.
In his remarks Saturday, the president encouraged listeners to pressure their members of Congress “to stop giving tax breaks to people who don’t need them.”
While the plan would force millionaires and billionaires to part with more of their money, Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that if enacted, legislation reflecting Obama’s proposal would collect $47 billion through 2022 — a trickle compared with the $7 trillion in federal budget deficits projected during that period.
