Current Events > Biden admin to investigate leak of Bezos, Musk, and Buffets tax information

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https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/08/investing/irs-propublica-leak-investigation/index.html

The Biden administration said Tuesday it is investigating how tax information from several of the world's richest people -- including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett -- was leaked to the public. "The unauthorized disclosure of confidential government information is illegal," said Treasury spokeswoman Lily Adams. "The matter is being referred to the Office of the Inspector General, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, all of whom have independent authority to investigate." The investigation comes after a report that showed new information from a trove of never-before-seen IRS records.

Earlier Tuesday, ProPublica reported on exclusively obtained IRS documents which showed how the likes of Bezos, Musk, Buffett, Bill Gates, George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Bloomberg have legally avoided paying income tax. "Any unauthorized disclosure of confidential government information by a person of access is illegal and we take this very seriously," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters during Tuesday's briefing. Psaki also reiterated the Biden administration's stance on having wealthy Americans pay more taxes to fund the President's proposals.

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Sure is nice of him to make this a priority

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Be a lot cooler if he made them pay like the rest of us.

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DJquackquack posted...

Be a lot cooler if he made them pay like the rest of us.

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This isn't even much of leak. If you own any stock, you should know you don't get taxed until you sell. Bezos, Musk, and Buffett all made money off of stock price increases. The people surprised by this are just continuing to show they don't know jack shit about anything.

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Whoever leaked it should be showered in praise not investigated.

These people don't pay their taxes. They should be facing the guiltotine for their brutal expoitation of workers, repeated breaking of work/lobbying/campaign finance laws and tax evasion.

I don't even give a fuck if what they are doing is technically legal. A lot of technically legal things so blatantly fly against the intent of the law that no sane judge should allow it.

Wealthy people using tax loopholes should itself be illegal. If you as a wealthy person aren't paying a minimum % it should be legally enshrined as a crime even if technically legal.

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DJquackquack posted...

Be a lot cooler if he made them pay like the rest of us.

They won't. Democrats are bought and paid for as well.

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pikachupwnage posted...

Whoever leaked it should be showered in praise not investigated.

These people don't pay their taxes. They should facing the guiltotine for their brutal expoitation of workers, repeated breaking of work/lobbying/campaign finance laws and tax evasion.

This.

Also investigating why they pay literally zero taxes and investigating the source of the leak are two entirely different investigations.


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Would be a lot cooler if we knew how they got out of paying so that we can do it too.

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ProPublica is intentionally misleading the masses who know don't know shit about how taxes work. People will eat it up because it confirms their bias.

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EndOfDiscOne posted...

ProPublica is intentionally misleading the masses who know don't know shit about how taxes work. People will eat it up because it confirms their bias.

What's misleading about it?

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EndOfDiscOne posted...

ProPublica is intentionally misleading the masses who know don't know shit about how taxes work. People will eat it up because it confirms their bias.

Tagged as FBI

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Balrog0 posted...

What's misleading about it?

The "true tax rate" bullshit. They're taking the amount of tax that people paid, and dividing it by their increase in net worth to get the "true tax rate."

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EndOfDiscOne posted...

The "true tax rate" bullshit. They're taking the amount of tax that people paid, and dividing it by their increase in net worth to get the "true tax rate."

Why is that misleading? They specifically compare the very wealthy to the average American. Unsurprisingly, for most of us our overall wealth and overall tax rate track pretty well. It's only the very wealthy that see a big divergence.

They also show how much they pay in taxes in relation to their reported income, and that's low, too. But wouldn't complaining about that be just as misleading? Both things are fine according to our tax system


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Balrog0 posted...

Why is that misleading? They specifically compare the very wealthy to the average American. Unsurprisingly, for most of us our overall wealth and overall tax rate track pretty well. It's only the very wealthy that see a big divergence.

Because they made up the term "true tax rate" and people are going to think that ProPublica is an authority on this. No one in the tax industry uses that term, and if they did, they would not use it as a percentage of net worth. They also use Forbes estimates for net worth I believe, which lack substance. At least they're up front about the fact that they have an agenda.

Normal people see unrealized gains through increases in value of their home, retirement accounts, and any other investments that they own.

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EndOfDiscOne posted...

Because they made up the term "true tax rate" and people are going to think that ProPublica is an authority on this. No one in the tax industry uses that term, and if they did, they would not use it as a percentage of net worth.

So... How is it misleading? They say upfront they are using the term in a certain way.

EndOfDiscOne posted...

They also use Forbes estimates for net worth I believe, which lack substance. At least they're up front about the fact that they have an agenda.

Yeah that's true. Though they chose billionaires whose estimates are likely close to correct given how their wealth was accumulated.

What's their agenda?

EndOfDiscOne posted...

Normal people see unrealized gains through increases in value of their home, retirement accounts, and any other investments that they own.

Yes.

I dunno, seems like a pretty weak argument to me. Like I indicated above you can make most of these same arguments to dismiss concerns over their lower effective tax rates, too. The only difference is that's a term "tax people" use

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Hopefully AOC doesn't run with Harris. I don't like her anymore.

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Balrog0 posted...

So... How is it misleading? They say upfront they are using the term in a certain way.

Because most people still don't really understand the difference from our current tax system--especially when they see the headlines from second hand news sources--and it makes it sound like these people are sneakily avoiding taxes through "loopholes" when that's not necessarily the case. I argue that the use of the word "true" makes this sensationalist.

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It would be cool if we had a president, Democrat or Republican, who didn't blatantly reward tax cheats with repatriation holidays during their term.


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