Musk, Bezos, other billionaires avoid U.S. income taxes: report

Democrats are out of their mind if they think they will take these people’s hard earned money

I see. You think super rich people should pay no taxes at all.

Otherwise you didn't read the story.

--I see. You think super rich people should pay no taxes at all.

They already do and more than anyone else

I'm sorry, but that makes no sense. Rich people who already pay no taxes are paying more than anyone else? Huh?

I don’t care what party they are from. I don’t care if I like their products or not. This is infuriating.

Full disclosure: I am not subject to US taxation because I don’t make more than the exemption for expatriates. But when I was, I paid my damn taxes every year.

I don’t care that there are legal loopholes that make it legal to “avoid” taxes (the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion are a good attorney and 5 years in prison).

I don’t begrudge the fantastically rich their good fortune and/or hard work. But I do think they should be required to pay more than their “fair share” because they can.

They benefit from the rule of law, investment in infrastructure, and technology. They should help pay for it.

Of course they pay taxes

Note to bass: read first line of article:

*Several of the richest Americans have paid zero income tax*

Why do you think the Republicans stopped funding the IRS?

While millions of their fellow citizens are mired in poverty. Shameful.

Also, these people and the organisations they fund are setting the social/cultural agenda villifying and cancelling those who don't follow.

Hypocrites.

bass: He paid other taxes like real estate and property taxes, that was never mentioned either so, nice try

heh

"I paid real estate taxes like everyone else, so it's fair that I shouldn't have to pay income taxes....unlike everyone else."

It is an open secret.

The very rich have been evading taxes via various legal loop holes, thanks to their smart legal and expert economic advisors.

These multi-billionaires continue amassing more wealth by the day..

No matter what your political leaning, just as in almost every other country on earth, the rich get to set the rules...

The problem in the US is that the former Repub, now Insurrectionist Party, is clearly in the back pocket of the rich...

Not only do they pervert the tax system so these Top 1 percenters get all sorts of loopholes, they also give them a windfall $1.9 tax break - all UNFUNDED....

The two core principals of the former GOP now FIP (Fascist Insurrectionist Party) are to; 1) subvert democracy so they can remain in power, and 2) protect and cater to the rich...

When Warren Buffett goes on TV with his secretary to remark on how she pays a higher percentage of tax, it shows this is not about tech billionaires only but Trump and his ilk too.

And the usual suspects will say will use the language of the American two party system.

The American hesitancy to speak about class is pathological .

And used to keep the class of non tax paying billionaires in luxury

Yeah so obviously the system is broken. What can we do to fix it?

He paid other taxes like real estate and property taxes, that was never mentioned either so, nice try

We all pay those taxes. Why should the less well-to-do Americans pay more in income taxes than the rich?

I especially do not get the bootlickers and apologists for billionaires not paying tax while they themselves are taxed on their meager earnings.

The billionaires are using their political lackeys to write the tax codes.

Here is a historical example:

A special tax loophole that applied to “an automobile manufacturer incorporated in Delaware on October 13, 1916.” It was a loophole written exclusively for General Motors, without actually naming General Motors. 

Saying the companies will move or just avoid it neglects the fact the tax code is written to be so and unless the apologists and lackeys are removed it will continue to be so .

Tax systems generally have too many exemptions (and exceptions), and are so complicated that only the very wealthy can afford to hire tax lawyers and accountants to push the envelope. If we had a much simpler tax system, you should be able to get more tax from the higher earners for their fair share plus eliminate / slow down the cottage industry of the tax lawyers and accountants (who also make a boatload of money). Not in the same league as the billionaires, but a tax partner at a lot law firm in the US grosses $3-5m!

And in similar news, water is wet. It has been clear for many years that taxation is a rigged system where the people that have the most can also skip paying, I will trust the different governments of the world are doing something when I see the first results, at the moment that has not yet happened.

Musk, Bezos, other billionaires avoid paying U.S. income taxes

It's enough to make you feel like three-fifths of a person.

(I think you will find its not only Republicans who are against a tax hike on the rich when you do this

We've all seen how widely inaccurate rightist predictions have been. The fact of the matter is that raising taxes on the rich are wildly popular. https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1Z9141

Again I'll ask: why should the less well off pay higher income taxes than the rich? Does anyone really think that's fair?

And these are the people who are foisting the top down “revolution” on the US Essentially an attempt to divert attention from this disgraceful situation.

they will move, relocate do whatever they can to 

They're massively rich because they were born and/or raised/educated in the US (or the UK, Canada, etc.) You'd think they'd show a bit of gratitude, never mind civic responsibility.

But sure, If they want to establish new lives for themselves and their families in, say, Belarus, Guatemala, Mongolia, Bangladesh Latvia, Greenland, Cambodia, or where ever,...then the world's their oyster! Their kids would have a great future far away from Democrat-land, right?

Wouldn't want the door hit them on the way out.

The bombshell report, by New York-based journalism nonprofit ProPublica, showed Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos paid no income tax in 2007 and 2011, while Tesla chief Elon Musk avoided all payments in 2018.

One thing is that at least the tech billionaires are funding technologies and innovation that may lead to an advancement in humanity.

The Trumps or Goldman Sachs Diamond who are flipping properties and moving around huge sums of money and also paying little tax cannot even have that to say for them.

Isn't Bezos the hero to the Dems?

Only in the addled mind of alt-righters. Actual democrats and liberals openly despise Jeff Bezos.

When you are rich enough that you don't have to pay yourself a salary and most of your assets are tax free until you 'realize the gains' in the distant future, there is a problem. If I were able to put virtually all of my salary directly into the stock market (into my own company) and not pay any taxes for years, I could get FAR ahead of the guy that is taxed every month on his earnings.

The problem is the tax policy, not the wealthy. Get the facts straight.

No, get a reality fix. The tax laws are written by the rich when the republicans run government. Like the massive Trump tax cut that went 90% to the rich who he served. Only democrats raise taxes on the rich as Clinton and Obama did when they were in power. Biden will do the same as is so clearly necessary. Buffet said years ago the his secretary pays more in taxes then he does, at least he was honest about that.

yeah--addled Dems are unaware about Bezos' ownership of the Washington Post; a major newspaper that never ever ever endorsed a Republican presidential candidate.

Bezos buying the Washington Post a few years ago does absolutely nothing to absolve him in any way of what he does to his workers and his abhorrent economical tactics. So what is your point?

What’s even more nauseating is that people like Bill Gates, are happy to take the credit (and tax credit) for benevolent donations through their charities/foundations, yet offshore the tax affairs of their corporations so they don’t have to pay tax.

They offshore their taxes not only because they can, but because they choose to use the loophole. That last part is optional.

If ever there was an example of narcissism bordering on sociopathy, there it is: “I don’t pay unless it makes me look good and stokes my ego.”

Bottom line is the rich just have TOO MANY options over the little guy that this is way way WAY beyond unfair, plus the rich benefit HUGELY from EVERYTHING the little guy's taxes pay for, like infrastructure for one!

Exactly. People expect company owners to be taxed on something they own instead of profit they made. 

I hear ya, but the tax system is set up in Japan and the USA to allow business owners to offset personal expenses as business expenses. This means that the business owner doesn’t need to take a large personal income and thereby avoids the income taxes. In the UK they are more strict about it.

e.g. business owners in Japan frequently add their rent, vacations and car(s) as a business expenses and take a small monthly “declared taxable income” on which they pay tax. The government has a highly questionable list of things that can be used to offset your tax including owning a wooden house (I.e. your holiday home in Karuizawa) and private jets.

This appears to be what Bezos etc are doing, their living expenses, yachts, private planes, vacations can all be considered business expenses. It’s easy not to take an income when you don’t need one.

Try doing that as a salaryman.

To be honest, even the enormous wealth of billionaires isn't enough to fund the government for more than a year or two. Focusing on taxes obfuscates the real danger billionaires pose. It's their ability to corrupt politicians, influence elections and shape public opinion through private media which makes them so dangerous to democracy. Most billionaires will acquiesce to a tax hike, but watch how aggressively they'll fight if you suggest publicly financed campaigns and limits on political advertising and donations.

I thought that the superrich owned the system, so it will not change. Nice try though.

total miss of the the point, while hurrying to try to dunk on someone with your #"rightist" comment.

Not dunking. Merely pointing out how inaccurate rightist predictions are. Sorry that upset you, but you don't have to take it so personally. :/

One thing is that at least the tech billionaires are funding technologies and innovation that may lead to an advancement in humanity.

Sure, or maybe they can help fund "gain of function" research like Bill Gates and Jeremy Farrar and screw the entire planet. Sure, these guys might have good intentions, but when they screw up they sure know how to cover their tracks.

I have an idea, make consumption tax worldwide proportional to your wealth, the more you accumulate , the more things get expensive to you and the more you are participating to the world and the more affordable things will be for those who have poor income, time to redistribute at the end of the pipeline not at the source.

They also benefited from the way taxable income is defined in the US tax code, since it does not take into account the growing value of assets like stock and property, and only taxes proceeds from sales of those items.

No need for this line. If you got taxed just for holding an asset, nobody would invest in anything. They'd end up owing money..

The problem is the tax policy, not the wealthy. Get the facts straight.

The "tax the rich" crowd was naive to think that they'd actually tax the rich. The rich won't pay any of those new taxes, only the middle class will. The rich will use every loophole and offshore tax haven to keep their money.

total miss of the the point, while hurrying to try to dunk on someone with your #"rightist" comment.

Im talking about Democrats in Congress. Pass a law then. Dems control the whole thing. Ram it through!

Bet they cant, as not even all Dems will vote yes. They have rich donors/lobbyists too, dont they?

The post is about income taxes not other taxes.

Exactly. People expect company owners to be taxed on something they own instead of profit they made.

But, the fact is, I could make 100 million dollars in profit in stocks, but I would never have to pay the top rate for income tax because stocks are taxed at a different rate - for everybody.

Learn a bit more about the rules before you complain.

yes, why dont the Dems push this new tax through Congress and make it law. Surely Biden will sign it, as this is how he tell us he is planning to pay for all his social programs and progressive agenda items. tax on the rich!

(I think you will find its not only Republicans who are against a tax hike on the rich when you do this. Its a convenient political point, but reality is that Dems wont pass this. I think you will then see what is called "rich" suddenly be the salary range that what we currently call the "middle class" makes)

Just like Trump in 2017 who only paid $750 in income taxes. Shameful and immoral. These people and companies should be paying their shares of taxes in a society they greatly benefit from.

I know you hated seeing names like Jeff Bezos and George Soros on there so you had to go straight for Trump. I am not sure what you would do if Mark Zuckerburg and Jack Dorsey were on the list.

and as we are learning, some not so benevolent donations too.

benevolent donations through their charities/foundations

I will say the same thing when everyone was going crazy about orange guy.

Change the law! not some executive order, but the law. with bipartisan support.

Until then its just politics about who is criticized and who is described as a person who "did nothing illegal in their tax declarations, but employed tax-avoidance strategies".

Only in the addled mind of alt-righters. Actual democrats and liberals openly despise Jeff Bezos

We thought only conservatives hated the man.

JsapcToday  12:39 pm JST

Only in the addled mind of alt-righters. Actual democrats and liberals openly despise Jeff Bezos.

yeah--addled Dems are unaware about Bezos' ownership of the Washington Post; a major newspaper that never ever ever endorsed a Republican presidential candidate.

Several of the richest Americans have paid zero income tax

He paid other taxes like real estate and property taxes, that was never mentioned either so, nice try

which is exactly what all these people Biden thinks he will be taxing will continue to do.

Hey I didnt hear what Trump supposedly also did described so nicely as this.

ProPublica says the billionaires did nothing illegal in their tax declarations, but employed tax-avoidance strategies "beyond the reach of ordinary people."

I'm sorry, but that makes no sense.

Why? That is true.

Rich people who already pay no taxes are paying more than anyone else? Huh?

Of course they pay taxes, the problem is, what is enough for the Democrats?

Isn't Bezos the hero to the Dems?

I see. You think super rich people should pay no taxes at all.

They already do and more than anyone else generally speaking because they have more money to begin with.

Otherwise you didn't read the story.

I did, but Biden and the Dems are becoming a bit too greedy now.

Like I said, Democrats are out of their mind if they think they will take these people’s hard earned money, they will move, relocate do whatever they can to avoid bailing the left and contributing to their socialist make believe great society utopia. Not going to happen.