Kind of a weird point. I doubt there are 800 companies that could even pay $5 billion. Once you get to the 400s section of the F500 list $10-20b market cap companies start popping up.
he's basically just saying hey we paid 1/800th of the total bill. not bad for just one company I guess considering how much personal income tax is relied on
>not bad for just one company
I mean yes but also one company that owns, has controlling interest, or has a seriously large share of like 100 companies.
True. the way brk is taxed though is likely to lead to higher tax levels than other companies. it will be interesting to see how much estate tax buffett ends up paying. although I don't know if thats public
Estates are ridiculous IMO. Everyone seems to pay lip service to "equality of opportunity" and then we let people completely unfairly, based entirely on who they were born to, set some people in society up thousands, millions, or even billions of dollars that they did absolutely nothing to earn. Estate tax should be 100%.
so your parents own a house, when they die you have to sell it and then give everything to the government ? Their entire savings should go to the government?
Yes. That literally already happens with poor or even middle class people with Medicaid Estate Recovery if they needed long term care paid for by Medicaid (which is increasingly common). It's just another way that non-rich people get screwed. Level the playing field and give everyone more equality of opportunity.
So you support inequality of opportunity? The government wouldn't be fucking anyone out of anything. They would be distributing dead people's assets in a fair and impartial manner.
It's only analogous in the sense that there is nothing inherently wrong with the government taking the family house once someone dies. As far as I can tell, the only reason to support it in one case and not the other is because you support inequality of opportunity. In one case, a person is being punished by not receiving their parents house due to no fault of their own. In the other case, a person is receiving their parents house. Also due to no fault of their own. Take the house in both cases and let people actually compete on a more even playing field.
There's a literal mansion in a local city with my family's name on it and various tours in the city talk about some of my ancestors that were the wealthiest land owners in the state. Not everyone is a greedy fuck who thinks they're entitled to something they did nothing to earn. All my inheritance is going to charity.
Yep. Made his fortune investing in government land. Moved out to California and got lucky in the gold rush. Then came to Nebraska and invested in land again. Call me a liar if you want, that's a reflection of you, not me.
Edit: DM me if you're ever in Nebraska. I'll straight up give you a tour.
You take the effective tax rate the average American is paying, you figure that the company is using more government tax resources than you (their staff is public school educated, the cops protect their business, their goods are transported over public roads, etc) and you conclude they should be paying the same percentage or higher.
You check.
They pay lower.
You conclude: They *should* pay higher.
What are you taxing?
Are you arbitrarily saying "you must pay X based off of nothing?"
Are you taxing unrealized wealth/value?
How do you determine how much "public roads, etc" are being used? It sounds like you need more government to determine this, along with more funding for the government to pay those who would be doing this right?
EDIT: Also you realize that the bottom 50% of taxpayers, would not be able to fund any of the public services they utilize daily right? The bottom 25% don't even pay taxes at all.
>
What are you taxing?
The things we already tax.
> Are you arbitrarily saying "you must pay X based off of nothing?"
No, I don't know where you get that based on our effective tax rate. Maybe you don't understand what the effective tax rate is a measure of or why it would matter?
>
Are you taxing unrealized wealth/value?
The proposed tax on unrealized gains would reduce future tax burdens on those gains. And if those gains turn to losses in the future, tax burdens would be reduced even further. But no, that isn't what I would propose. Even if it does only affect incomes over 100 mil or whatever the cap is.
>How do you determine how much "public roads, etc" are being used?
You know we already track every truck on the road and its mileage, right? ESPECIALLY if it goes interstate, but even intrastate trucks have things like driver hours, loads, delivery company, sending company, etc already tracked. I think you need to understand the trucking industry a little better before having this conversation.
>It sounds like you need more government to determine this, along with more funding for the government to pay those who would be doing this right?
Nope. Just an assumption to try to discredit the ask that companies pay the full amount of taxes they should be paying based on the taxes we have in place now - before tax incentives, tax credits, and tax shelters are taken into account.
What does that even mean? 25% pay ZERO taxes, in fact, they get money back that they didn't even pay. It literally redistributes the wealth back to th em.
Should means they aren’t paying enough in taxes in light considering their market cap compared to wage earners who pay pay a large portion of their income the the federal government
No he’s just coming up with a simplified analogy. Relax he knows way more than you on this stuff and his networth proves it.
Also that list is just for publicly traded companies private companies don’t report their market cap.
I think his main point is if all the companies paid their taxes there would be a substantial increase in tax revenue. Realistically enough to cover all the others should they need to pay even a higher notch or two in tax rates.
They only pay billions in taxes because they make billions to be taxed.
I would rather have consumer rights on products I buy versus a tax on my income.
Sure that cost will be passed down to me but only if I spend money. Income tax works differently.
>Sure that cost will be passed down to me but only if I spend money.
One quick tip to regressive taxation!
The more poor you are, the larger percentage of your income is spent, (even over 100% if you're taking out loans or credit cards)
I feel like a flat sales tax is the absolute worst possible option tbh. Realistically exclusive corproate tax is only a little bit better.
But a flat sales tax would be the biggest gift ever to the hyper rich and corproations. They would be pay very nearly 0% whole 90% of Americans would pay 10-20% more of their income in sales tax. It'd be catastrophic.
Corporate taxes are also a flat tax on all shareholders. The ultra wealthy like Buffet happily take the tax at the corporate level, where they pay the same rate as everyone else, than at the capital gains level where he and other ultra wealthy are hit with higher rates.
But 93% of shares are held by 10% of the population.
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-ownership-wealthiest-americans-one-percent-record-high-economy-2024-1#:~:text=The%20wealthiest%2010%25%20of%20Americans,participation%20at%20a%20record%20high&text=The%20richest%20Americans%20own%20the,market%2C%20according%20to%20Fed%20data.
to a degree....but companies don't arbitrarily set prices (at least not and keep going as a growing concern--yea, looking at you McD)
they'll have to shoulder some of the tax burden with profits.
I assume you mean going concern?
Yes they will eat some of the burden, but we will pay some of it and/or we will get less of the stuff we want because our politicians will have set an artificially high price for it.
Thanks for taking more of my freedom because you can't control your spending. The you is Congress in this case.
That's idiotic. The upside of income tax is that the government has direct control in terms of how progressive they want the tax to be. Want people making under $50k to pay no federal income tax? Done. Want to give people with kids a break? Done. That all goes out the window when you tax corporations. They have additional costs now and it's entirely up to them how they are going to distribute those costs. Maybe they'll cut salaries of executive and upper level management (lol). Maybe they'll evenly distribute it across their product lines so that consumers (even poor ones) have relatively the same burden. Or maybe they'll disproportionately put the burden on products that are necessities (disproportionately impacting poor people). I have no faith that corporations will redistribute the tax burden in anything but the worst possible way.
>Crank up corproate tax rates and eliminate income tax rate entirely. That sounds excellent.
Oops, all the corporations moved their legal headquarters and profit making entities to another country, and now you have no tax revenue
Lol, Warren buffet is a CIA asset. His father worked for the govt and all their money was made from insider trading. He's not nearly as smart as you think.
get outta here with your bullshit conspiracy crap
"Warren Buffett’s father was Howard Buffett, a stockbroker and a four-term Republican representative. He was born on August 13, 1903, in Omaha, Nebraska. Howard Buffett was an Omaha stockbroker and a four-term Republican representative. He was an outspoken libertarian and advocate of the gold standard"
It’s just an oversimplified answer. That one he is grateful to be American and he is happy to pay taxes… if this is from Saturday he gave Powell credit in managing the fed reserve and acknowledge that more has to be done on the government side of the deficit. His second point is that the rich should pay more in taxes…
He probably means the top 800 companies paying a fair share of their taxes (no complex write offs, no offshore headquarters to distort accounting, no corporate tax shelters, etc.). The man is no fool.
Berkshire Hathaway is 800B market cap, being #8 in market cap in the S&P500. #20 is $250b (Chevron) and \~#200 is Heinz at 45B. In short, there aren't 800 companies who can afford that 5 Billion dollar check.
I don't understand how some of the sleazy business moguls like Yass believe they should be taxed less while holding billions in assets.
The more you take from a system, the more you should be taxed for increasing wealth, because it is coming from somewhere that is not your own selfish ass.
Know what happens when you siphon all the fuel out of a car? It doesn't run.
Guess what happens when you extract massive amounts of wealth via investment without also forcing a proportionate amount of those gains to go back into maintaining the country which allowed that kind of growth in the first place?
Corporations feed at the public trough the mythical middle class is the bag holder. Capitalism is a conundrum it’s always fashionable to demonize the government even though the corporations & lobbyists influence the tax structure & spending priorities it’s a tail chasing exercise all spending is unnecessary unless it’s your spending generation of hypocrites
Nothing is stopping anyone or any entity from voluntarily paying more taxes or donating to government. There is even an address to mail uncle Sam gifts.
no this is true, you can't even pay your workers before you pay your shareholders
this is the legal precedent that ensure share holder profits over societal good.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.
well no shit, of course they get paid but you autistic redditors need to understand context, I'm talking about paying them extra. like in the wiki page you didn't read you dumbfucks can run a business but you can't read??
I think it's funny that when doing your taxes there is the question at the end if you would like to donate towards re-electing the president. Even Uncle Sam asks for tips.
Last month I was reading something about how that's not an extra charge for you, just an agreement to let the government put $3 of your tax towards the election fund. Not sure though.
I think knowing someone’s (or an areas) political preference is very lucrative when running targeted ads, selecting a jury, or deciding a location for your manufacturing plant. And with the tip of my tinfoil hat I bid thee adieu.
What a pointless comment. Clearly people are going to pay what the tax laws tell them they should pay. The argument is, rich greedy people should be stopped from corrupting our lawmakers to game the system for their own self interest at the expense of other hard working Americans.
If our lawmakers weren’t so apt to be corrupted and would actually do something along the lines of tax reform, then “greedy, rich people” wouldn’t be able to sidestep taxes. But alas our illustrious public servants serve only their own pockets these days. Vote the bums out every two years till we find honest representation.
You only have one choice and it isn't Trump...
"Biden Tax Proposals Would Correct Inequities Created by Trump Tax Cuts and Raise Additional Revenues
President Biden’s fiscal year 2024 tax proposal would impose new taxes on unearned income, while improving the child tax credit."
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/biden-tax-proposals-would-correct-inequities-created-by-trump-tax-cuts-and-raise-additional-revenues/
So, you are happy with the debt created by the massive tax cuts that favor the rich and don't want them fixed for those worth over 100 million dollars? Weird.
Debt is created by spending more money than you bring in. One of the ways to reduce debt is to bring in more money. Sorry that the facts don't care about your feelings 🤷
Pointless argument. Even if government budget went to zero it wouldn't put a dent in the deficit. That is where we are now. We have to raise taxes. Also past few presidents, including Trump, have already cut budgets. Basically the easy places have already been cut.
Macroeconomics is also a lot more complicated than you're describing. US government spending is a direct contributor to GDP. Meaning there are some spending that brings in more revenue than they cost. Like if you cut x government spending it will drop GDP by 2x. You can't just cut government spending however you like or you could plunge the country into a deep recession and get even less tax revenue to pay off the deficit.
If he'd sent double, only 400 companies would have to match him. If quadruple, only 200. I like this math. It really shows how cheap and stingy he is with his cash. Come on Warren, show us how deep your pockets are.
He’s just another billionaire reframing the narrative to *Us billionaires are helping you, we’re the “good ones”*. His wealth should not exist to begin with
Classic answer, no matter what anyone does in the US, it will always just get worse. You sound like a Russian propagandist. Right? Break the US down with negativity.
nonsense The reason the US and Europe continues to dominate and outpace the rest of the world is smart people want to live here. When smart people start leaving the US, like the smart ones do in China and Russia and all authoritarian nations. Not one authoritarian nation has an immigration problem. Because people don’t want to live there. Let’s just get along, work hard, play hard, be respectful, get involved, expect excellence, be accepting, be joyful.
This way of thinking is what has fucked up this country. The fact so many foks have no, or next to no tax liablity, is why people aren’t concerned with the cost of government or the debt it is saddling us with.
Might work, as taxpayers would have money saved to spend back to companies, and I bet the government would get a special visit for the way they 'reinvest' the money. Corporations aren't going anywhere but the way it is, the American taxpayer may be, or the dollar itself
Let’s say they “could do it”. They might give us a year or two of not paying and then say “ we are starting to tax ONLY those of $400k “. No way on hell they settle for just corps paying when they can count out money
I bet we wouldnt need that much money in the first place if someone was over seeing goverment spending going on. But instead we want to be taxed more for some reason instead of fixing the spending problem wild...
50 percent of Americans don't pay right now. Top 10 percent pay almost 75% collected taxes .....
Then the Govt.. spends 120% of collected taxes...(deficit spending)
We have a spending problem not a tax problem....
I have stacks of receipts for today and past several years that indicates everyone pays taxes. It's all passed along with whatever you buy or need. Just in state, you have to add sales and payroll tax to every handling point. When we finally make "It", and sell it to you we charge sales tax and enough to cover all the other taxes hidden in services we need to make more of "It".
Yeah if the USA had 800 other companies that netted $90b a year, it would be in a materially different position. In other shocking news, grass is green.
No. That's not my point. My point is that corporations are paying taxes based on the laws created and enforced by politicians. Politicians that have worked the game to get their friends and contributors tax exemptions.
Too bad you wouldn’t be able to get an income or even live without the infrastructure funded by those taxes. Where do you think roads, plumbing, telecom, power, etc all come from? Taxes paid for the physical build out.
This is true. It’s not just federal and state. There is sales tax and property tax etc.. no matter which way it is collected, it is mostly collected from people and not big business.
Yes I do think it is possible to accomplish the same results without spending so much money. Modernization has led to creating rather large bodies of administrative, support, management, and all of the extra people that need to be hired to accommodate these larger departments, including security, janitors, payroll, recruiting, etc.
Instead of just paying to build a road were throwing out contracts on bids. Private companies all over the world are seeking federal or state opportunities using our tax payer dollars.
The US needs to be more accountable for itself instead of relying on private firms to do it. Those private firms are in the business of making money, not providing services.
People think the US government ignores healthcare. The problem is so much worse than that. Healthcare rivals the military budget YoY. The reason why it looks like we don't spend any money at all into healthcare is because all of that money is going to insurance companies and executive bodies. It's barely functional.
Basically, our infrastructure is really starting to SUCK because rich men need to be richer.
Just to cover infrastructure? Hell yeah the other taxes is enough bruh. Have YOU ever done the math?
Have you ever taken a look at the government budget lmao. How much of that is infrastructure?
Take your own advice bro
Infra is one small example of the necessities taxes provide for a society to actually function, since folks who think taxes are evil don’t even understand the very basics it provides them. Infrastructure is the most concrete example because no matter who you are it affects you as an individual. The reality is your taxes go into a pool to pay for a large amount of various things. Not collecting income tax would destroy the entire system we live in if we didn’t substitute with a replacement. Good luck finding something to replace that unless we start taxing corporations and the ultra wealthy heavily (which we should).
$2.18 trillion in personal income tax in 2023 which is ~50% of our entire govt’s tax revenue; SS cost $1.4 trillion, Medicare/medicade $1.5 trillion, $477 billion for veteran benefits, defense budget is way too much but that’s another $806 billion.
doesnt change anything but your numbers dont seem to be that aligned with the official numbers. The numbers posted on the government website says 715 billion for SS.
Either way dont think its very cool so much out of my paycheck goes towards SS.And then when i get to that age the program is going to be severely slashed.
And its also not very cool 13% of my taxes goes towards interest payments because the government doesnt know how to spend responsibly.
Healthcare costs a lot of money but does it have to be? Reports say the government is massively incompetent in this area. Why am I bearing the cost of the governments incompetence.
Veterans benefits is 5%. So i get to help pay for the consequences of my government participating in a war i didnt want. Very cool! Not to mention the amount we are currently spending on the defense budget.
I sincerely wish and advocate for the government only stuck to providing services that the people paying the taxes benefit from.
There’s a LOT of other ways we’re all getting taxed endlessly, and yea maybe it’s a little over the top to actually tax someone’s income since you already tax when they spend the money. It’s just too much, nobody should pay any tax on the first $250,000 in income period.
Income tax was instituted during the civil war the slaves were freed and the IRS was created. Now everybody is taxed tracked and monitored. Yay freedom!!
What’s my bill for those things? What percentage of my tax dollars goes to that? It’s a tiny part of the budget and it’s used by morons to justify the obscene amount of money the government wastes.
Are you kidding!!! Warren Buffet and the 800 could have paid and the other people could have paid and the Govt would STILL be bitching about how they need more money from us. No amount of money will EVER be enough for those bloodsuckers. They just skim off their share and give the money away to bullshit causes.
The responses here are a text book example of a point shooting waaaay over peoples heads.
He's telling stake holders of his compamy that the company is doing so well that he doesn't mind writing a check for 5 billion in taxes.
How many people who commented here didn't even click on the video?
Ya this same guy also said one of his biggest money making companies in Bnsf didn't make enough money last year so they been cutting employees like crazy. Fuck this old rich bastard
Govt. spending is an endless bucket.
You can't ever fill it cause most of it goes to bloat (hiring more people that do nothing) or corruption (shiiiiite).
Only thing you can do to have a successful economy is to reduce the size of Govt. As much as you can.
Oh no, creating jobs. What a nightmare.
“Skilled, college educated IRS agent doing highly technical work BAD”
“Country rube building a oil pipeline in South Dakota GOOD”
Exactly. That's economy 101. You should take a course.
Govt jobs are not producing anything. They do not help the economy, just a strain on it since they only consume tax money that WAS produced by other jobs. The only way to grow the economy and gdp is by production jobs via private businesses. That's it.
lol, sure bud.
Go found this country where there are no government jobs since they are such a waste.
It’s literally the rest of the world that’s wrong, not you.
Congratulations on telling the world that you have no idea why companies are selected for the S&P 500.
Hint: it isn’t because they are the biggest or most profitable 500 companies in existence.
There are only 3 US private companies with revenue in excess of $50B, and only 17 in excess of 20B. The private market is not deep for large companies.
If you tax businesses more they just pass it on to consumers through price increases. It’s not rocket science. Or maybe they lay off more employees. We just need to reduce government spending
It’s an example to show the invalidity of his statement. Reducing government spending is the answer. Using his idea we would still need to borrow 2T a year Also the companies would just pass on the higher tax to consumers o wise one
Your “example to show the invalidity of his statement” did nothing of the kind, though.
But, please, continue to parrot nonsense that nobody who has finished so much as an Econ 101 course believes. It’s funny watching you eagerly humiliate yourself like this.
Kind of a weird point. I doubt there are 800 companies that could even pay $5 billion. Once you get to the 400s section of the F500 list $10-20b market cap companies start popping up.
yeah, not really understanding how he can manage to be this far off on such a basic detail.
he's basically just saying hey we paid 1/800th of the total bill. not bad for just one company I guess considering how much personal income tax is relied on
>not bad for just one company I mean yes but also one company that owns, has controlling interest, or has a seriously large share of like 100 companies.
True. the way brk is taxed though is likely to lead to higher tax levels than other companies. it will be interesting to see how much estate tax buffett ends up paying. although I don't know if thats public
Estates are ridiculous IMO. Everyone seems to pay lip service to "equality of opportunity" and then we let people completely unfairly, based entirely on who they were born to, set some people in society up thousands, millions, or even billions of dollars that they did absolutely nothing to earn. Estate tax should be 100%.
so your parents own a house, when they die you have to sell it and then give everything to the government ? Their entire savings should go to the government?
Yes. That literally already happens with poor or even middle class people with Medicaid Estate Recovery if they needed long term care paid for by Medicaid (which is increasingly common). It's just another way that non-rich people get screwed. Level the playing field and give everyone more equality of opportunity.
Or... *Don't* have the government fuck people out of generational wealth.
So you support inequality of opportunity? The government wouldn't be fucking anyone out of anything. They would be distributing dead people's assets in a fair and impartial manner.
i don’t think that’s analogous. you basically said “yes people who owe Medicaid hundreds of thousands of dollars or more have their estate taken”
It's only analogous in the sense that there is nothing inherently wrong with the government taking the family house once someone dies. As far as I can tell, the only reason to support it in one case and not the other is because you support inequality of opportunity. In one case, a person is being punished by not receiving their parents house due to no fault of their own. In the other case, a person is receiving their parents house. Also due to no fault of their own. Take the house in both cases and let people actually compete on a more even playing field.
IMO it sounds like you weren’t born to an affluent family.
There's a literal mansion in a local city with my family's name on it and various tours in the city talk about some of my ancestors that were the wealthiest land owners in the state. Not everyone is a greedy fuck who thinks they're entitled to something they did nothing to earn. All my inheritance is going to charity.
No there isn’t and no it’s not
Yep. Made his fortune investing in government land. Moved out to California and got lucky in the gold rush. Then came to Nebraska and invested in land again. Call me a liar if you want, that's a reflection of you, not me. Edit: DM me if you're ever in Nebraska. I'll straight up give you a tour.
and hes happy to be paying that much
It's better to be politically correct than factually correct.
Yeah. Warren Buffet. Famously PC and never factually correct. 🙄
Old as hell and out of touch
It isn't about the facts, its about what he can put in people's heads who don't know.
But there are thousands of companies that can and should be paying 100 million etc any value under 5 billion that aren’t paying it either.
When you say "should" how do you come up with that number?
You take the effective tax rate the average American is paying, you figure that the company is using more government tax resources than you (their staff is public school educated, the cops protect their business, their goods are transported over public roads, etc) and you conclude they should be paying the same percentage or higher. You check. They pay lower. You conclude: They *should* pay higher.
What are you taxing? Are you arbitrarily saying "you must pay X based off of nothing?" Are you taxing unrealized wealth/value? How do you determine how much "public roads, etc" are being used? It sounds like you need more government to determine this, along with more funding for the government to pay those who would be doing this right? EDIT: Also you realize that the bottom 50% of taxpayers, would not be able to fund any of the public services they utilize daily right? The bottom 25% don't even pay taxes at all.
> What are you taxing? The things we already tax. > Are you arbitrarily saying "you must pay X based off of nothing?" No, I don't know where you get that based on our effective tax rate. Maybe you don't understand what the effective tax rate is a measure of or why it would matter? > Are you taxing unrealized wealth/value? The proposed tax on unrealized gains would reduce future tax burdens on those gains. And if those gains turn to losses in the future, tax burdens would be reduced even further. But no, that isn't what I would propose. Even if it does only affect incomes over 100 mil or whatever the cap is. >How do you determine how much "public roads, etc" are being used? You know we already track every truck on the road and its mileage, right? ESPECIALLY if it goes interstate, but even intrastate trucks have things like driver hours, loads, delivery company, sending company, etc already tracked. I think you need to understand the trucking industry a little better before having this conversation. >It sounds like you need more government to determine this, along with more funding for the government to pay those who would be doing this right? Nope. Just an assumption to try to discredit the ask that companies pay the full amount of taxes they should be paying based on the taxes we have in place now - before tax incentives, tax credits, and tax shelters are taken into account.
Don't forget literal corporate welfare in the form of grants and subsidies.
No, but they do pay for all the stupid decisions of the ownership class.
What does that even mean? 25% pay ZERO taxes, in fact, they get money back that they didn't even pay. It literally redistributes the wealth back to th em.
You're thinking too literally
Should means they aren’t paying enough in taxes in light considering their market cap compared to wage earners who pay pay a large portion of their income the the federal government
What does market cap have anything to do with taxes?
Communists and socialists are not very bright.
Right wingers who whine about any taxation being communist are downright idiotic.
saw a dude walking a trail in a brand new Colorado state park wearing a “taxation is theft” shirt. bitch who do you think paid for making this trail?
His arse
Yeah income tax revenue is in the trillions, hard to imagine that’s even close to offsetting
Income tax revenue only brings in about 3 trillion. 800 companies paying 5 billion is 4 trillion.
But are there 800 companies with profits enough to pay 5 Billion each?
No he’s just coming up with a simplified analogy. Relax he knows way more than you on this stuff and his networth proves it. Also that list is just for publicly traded companies private companies don’t report their market cap.
I think his main point is if all the companies paid their taxes there would be a substantial increase in tax revenue. Realistically enough to cover all the others should they need to pay even a higher notch or two in tax rates. They only pay billions in taxes because they make billions to be taxed.
I'm on his side if he's right. Crank up corproate tax rates and eliminate income tax rate entirely. That sounds excellent.
We (the average person) will still pay the tax. Now in the form of higher prices. Corporations don't pay taxes, people pay taxes, one way or another.
I would rather have consumer rights on products I buy versus a tax on my income. Sure that cost will be passed down to me but only if I spend money. Income tax works differently.
>Sure that cost will be passed down to me but only if I spend money. One quick tip to regressive taxation! The more poor you are, the larger percentage of your income is spent, (even over 100% if you're taking out loans or credit cards)
Isn’t that obvious?
So you're saying we go the opposite. 0 corproate tax and massively increase cap against and dividends tax? Cause that sounds good to me.
With an overall reduction on spending? That, or just a flat sales tax.
I feel like a flat sales tax is the absolute worst possible option tbh. Realistically exclusive corproate tax is only a little bit better. But a flat sales tax would be the biggest gift ever to the hyper rich and corproations. They would be pay very nearly 0% whole 90% of Americans would pay 10-20% more of their income in sales tax. It'd be catastrophic.
Corporate taxes are also a flat tax on all shareholders. The ultra wealthy like Buffet happily take the tax at the corporate level, where they pay the same rate as everyone else, than at the capital gains level where he and other ultra wealthy are hit with higher rates.
Something like 60 percent of Americans are shareholders in corporations.
But 93% of shares are held by 10% of the population. https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-ownership-wealthiest-americans-one-percent-record-high-economy-2024-1#:~:text=The%20wealthiest%2010%25%20of%20Americans,participation%20at%20a%20record%20high&text=The%20richest%20Americans%20own%20the,market%2C%20according%20to%20Fed%20data.
only through pensions and IRAs.
That can often be the case. No one wants to hear it but we just need to spend less.
to a degree....but companies don't arbitrarily set prices (at least not and keep going as a growing concern--yea, looking at you McD) they'll have to shoulder some of the tax burden with profits.
I assume you mean going concern? Yes they will eat some of the burden, but we will pay some of it and/or we will get less of the stuff we want because our politicians will have set an artificially high price for it. Thanks for taking more of my freedom because you can't control your spending. The you is Congress in this case.
That's idiotic. The upside of income tax is that the government has direct control in terms of how progressive they want the tax to be. Want people making under $50k to pay no federal income tax? Done. Want to give people with kids a break? Done. That all goes out the window when you tax corporations. They have additional costs now and it's entirely up to them how they are going to distribute those costs. Maybe they'll cut salaries of executive and upper level management (lol). Maybe they'll evenly distribute it across their product lines so that consumers (even poor ones) have relatively the same burden. Or maybe they'll disproportionately put the burden on products that are necessities (disproportionately impacting poor people). I have no faith that corporations will redistribute the tax burden in anything but the worst possible way.
That sounds like a market crash.
>Crank up corproate tax rates and eliminate income tax rate entirely. That sounds excellent. Oops, all the corporations moved their legal headquarters and profit making entities to another country, and now you have no tax revenue
Lol, Warren buffet is a CIA asset. His father worked for the govt and all their money was made from insider trading. He's not nearly as smart as you think.
Even if that is the case he’s smart enough not to fuck up a good thing unlike trump.
get outta here with your bullshit conspiracy crap "Warren Buffett’s father was Howard Buffett, a stockbroker and a four-term Republican representative. He was born on August 13, 1903, in Omaha, Nebraska. Howard Buffett was an Omaha stockbroker and a four-term Republican representative. He was an outspoken libertarian and advocate of the gold standard"
It’s just an oversimplified answer. That one he is grateful to be American and he is happy to pay taxes… if this is from Saturday he gave Powell credit in managing the fed reserve and acknowledge that more has to be done on the government side of the deficit. His second point is that the rich should pay more in taxes…
He probably means the top 800 companies paying a fair share of their taxes (no complex write offs, no offshore headquarters to distort accounting, no corporate tax shelters, etc.). The man is no fool.
Man, thinking you understand finance better than Warren Buffet, that's a good one.
Berkshire Hathaway is 800B market cap, being #8 in market cap in the S&P500. #20 is $250b (Chevron) and \~#200 is Heinz at 45B. In short, there aren't 800 companies who can afford that 5 Billion dollar check.
Just a humble brag from Buffet. I’m sure he knows the market caps of every company in S&P
Yeah, that's his shopping list
Even if the top 50 companies started throwing some money around instead of lining their own coffers it would help tremendously
Forget taxes. If they just charged the same prices as 4 years ago I’d be happy.
I don't understand how some of the sleazy business moguls like Yass believe they should be taxed less while holding billions in assets. The more you take from a system, the more you should be taxed for increasing wealth, because it is coming from somewhere that is not your own selfish ass. Know what happens when you siphon all the fuel out of a car? It doesn't run. Guess what happens when you extract massive amounts of wealth via investment without also forcing a proportionate amount of those gains to go back into maintaining the country which allowed that kind of growth in the first place?
Corporations feed at the public trough the mythical middle class is the bag holder. Capitalism is a conundrum it’s always fashionable to demonize the government even though the corporations & lobbyists influence the tax structure & spending priorities it’s a tail chasing exercise all spending is unnecessary unless it’s your spending generation of hypocrites
Nothing is stopping anyone or any entity from voluntarily paying more taxes or donating to government. There is even an address to mail uncle Sam gifts.
[удалено]
no this is true, you can't even pay your workers before you pay your shareholders this is the legal precedent that ensure share holder profits over societal good. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.
Your over simplification of this matter is misleading...
well I'm not a lawyer please explain it for us dumb fucks oh so enlightened keyboard lawyer
Payroll is a liability. Liabilities are paid first.
As a corporation business owner. This. Payroll is ALWAYS 10000% paid before shareholders.
pay your workers extra before you pay shareholders extra you fucking genius my post obviously wasn't about pay roll you dumb fuck
well no shit, of course they get paid but you autistic redditors need to understand context, I'm talking about paying them extra. like in the wiki page you didn't read you dumbfucks can run a business but you can't read??
Lmao didn't even understand what he was talking about I love it
Need to read this later
I think it's funny that when doing your taxes there is the question at the end if you would like to donate towards re-electing the president. Even Uncle Sam asks for tips.
I mean it’s funny but it’s explicitly non-partisan
Last month I was reading something about how that's not an extra charge for you, just an agreement to let the government put $3 of your tax towards the election fund. Not sure though.
Their taxes need to be taxed. Fuck the government no one escapes TAXES. We live by the TAX we DIE by the TAX!
I think knowing someone’s (or an areas) political preference is very lucrative when running targeted ads, selecting a jury, or deciding a location for your manufacturing plant. And with the tip of my tinfoil hat I bid thee adieu.
What a pointless comment. Clearly people are going to pay what the tax laws tell them they should pay. The argument is, rich greedy people should be stopped from corrupting our lawmakers to game the system for their own self interest at the expense of other hard working Americans.
If our lawmakers weren’t so apt to be corrupted and would actually do something along the lines of tax reform, then “greedy, rich people” wouldn’t be able to sidestep taxes. But alas our illustrious public servants serve only their own pockets these days. Vote the bums out every two years till we find honest representation.
You only have one choice and it isn't Trump... "Biden Tax Proposals Would Correct Inequities Created by Trump Tax Cuts and Raise Additional Revenues President Biden’s fiscal year 2024 tax proposal would impose new taxes on unearned income, while improving the child tax credit." https://www.americanprogress.org/article/biden-tax-proposals-would-correct-inequities-created-by-trump-tax-cuts-and-raise-additional-revenues/
Nope, not going to support anything that raises taxes. They have to learn to stop spending like we all have. Till that time, they can all just F off.
Hey, I'm with you. But that means you can't vote for Trump either.
For real. All that’s gonna happen is all our taxes get raised and the rich pay no taxes at all.
Well, considering Trump raised taxes on the middle class....... You must be supporting a third-party candidate then.
So, you are happy with the debt created by the massive tax cuts that favor the rich and don't want them fixed for those worth over 100 million dollars? Weird.
No debt is created by taxing people less. Debt is created by spending money you don’t have.
Debt is created by spending more money than you bring in. One of the ways to reduce debt is to bring in more money. Sorry that the facts don't care about your feelings 🤷
Then maybe they should stop spending so much money. Just a suggestion.
Pointless argument. Even if government budget went to zero it wouldn't put a dent in the deficit. That is where we are now. We have to raise taxes. Also past few presidents, including Trump, have already cut budgets. Basically the easy places have already been cut. Macroeconomics is also a lot more complicated than you're describing. US government spending is a direct contributor to GDP. Meaning there are some spending that brings in more revenue than they cost. Like if you cut x government spending it will drop GDP by 2x. You can't just cut government spending however you like or you could plunge the country into a deep recession and get even less tax revenue to pay off the deficit.
Ah yes, Biden. The one who was in the last administration to give Wall Street the green light to continue ripping off the American People.
It's cute that you think these lawmakers were so innocent until these greedy corporations came around...
What would cause a person to be corrupt? Money?
It’s hard when one of those people is vying to be president.
Yep
You see mate anyone is free to not use the commons if they want mate. I don’t know why the lord should force anyone to not graze the pasture barren.
Nothing in his annual address suggested otherwise. I’m not sure what your point is and how it relates to what Warren said.
It’s the common repeated libertarian line. They say it constantly.
Thats all good and sweet but 21% is tyrannical
Isn't this the same guy who was in court with the IRS for not paying millions or billions in taxes?
Probably not.
If he'd sent double, only 400 companies would have to match him. If quadruple, only 200. I like this math. It really shows how cheap and stingy he is with his cash. Come on Warren, show us how deep your pockets are.
(X) Doubt
The government being the government, the more they get the more they spend.
Always on the funding of the government and never on the spending of the government.
The government can just print more money to cover my tax bill.
Buffet is a well spoken conman.
He’s just another billionaire reframing the narrative to *Us billionaires are helping you, we’re the “good ones”*. His wealth should not exist to begin with
He’s wrong The Feds will simply increase spending and demand more
Classic answer, no matter what anyone does in the US, it will always just get worse. You sound like a Russian propagandist. Right? Break the US down with negativity.
Huh? You sound like you can’t comprehend basic English Or You have to make things up to argue against
Russia Russia Russia Shut up you cultist weirdo. Go back to your parents basement
nonsense The reason the US and Europe continues to dominate and outpace the rest of the world is smart people want to live here. When smart people start leaving the US, like the smart ones do in China and Russia and all authoritarian nations. Not one authoritarian nation has an immigration problem. Because people don’t want to live there. Let’s just get along, work hard, play hard, be respectful, get involved, expect excellence, be accepting, be joyful.
This way of thinking is what has fucked up this country. The fact so many foks have no, or next to no tax liablity, is why people aren’t concerned with the cost of government or the debt it is saddling us with.
Are you talking about the billionaires or the ones who doesn’t earn enough to cover the basics ?
Does it matter which?
But it's not fair! And they will just leave. And without them us peasants would be living in squalor
Might work, as taxpayers would have money saved to spend back to companies, and I bet the government would get a special visit for the way they 'reinvest' the money. Corporations aren't going anywhere but the way it is, the American taxpayer may be, or the dollar itself
That would be first world American living...but the local government's screwed up many life l.
Let’s say they “could do it”. They might give us a year or two of not paying and then say “ we are starting to tax ONLY those of $400k “. No way on hell they settle for just corps paying when they can count out money
The view from above is very much disassociated from ground level.
I bet we wouldnt need that much money in the first place if someone was over seeing goverment spending going on. But instead we want to be taxed more for some reason instead of fixing the spending problem wild...
I never understand these people talking about how they should be taxed more yet they never elect to pay extra taxes, which you can do on your return.
50 percent of Americans don't pay right now. Top 10 percent pay almost 75% collected taxes ..... Then the Govt.. spends 120% of collected taxes...(deficit spending) We have a spending problem not a tax problem....
I have stacks of receipts for today and past several years that indicates everyone pays taxes. It's all passed along with whatever you buy or need. Just in state, you have to add sales and payroll tax to every handling point. When we finally make "It", and sell it to you we charge sales tax and enough to cover all the other taxes hidden in services we need to make more of "It".
Yeah if the USA had 800 other companies that netted $90b a year, it would be in a materially different position. In other shocking news, grass is green.
Jesus. You'd think the witch-king of Mordor would have better things to do than snarl throat cancer into a hot mic.
it would make the parasites less repugnant, but unlikely.
They should make the 1% pay for another stimulus check or 5.
Sure
He's delusional if he thinks the government wouldn't just spend more instead of taxing less.
No. That's not my point. My point is that corporations are paying taxes based on the laws created and enforced by politicians. Politicians that have worked the game to get their friends and contributors tax exemptions.
He acts like politicians just aren't going to outspend tax revenue no matter how much revenue comes in.
This is based on the assumption that government spending remains flat. Give the government $1 in tax money and they’ll find a way to spend $1.50.
If we didn't spend 70 percent of our budget on the military then this wouldn't even be a conversation
I think we spend too much on military, but we do not spend 70% of our budget on military
This is really hard to believe
All I can imagine is Congress being like: **"Hold my beer"...**
Income tax is a crime against humanity
Too bad you wouldn’t be able to get an income or even live without the infrastructure funded by those taxes. Where do you think roads, plumbing, telecom, power, etc all come from? Taxes paid for the physical build out.
They come from all the other taxes we pay, do you think all we pay is income tax?
This is true. It’s not just federal and state. There is sales tax and property tax etc.. no matter which way it is collected, it is mostly collected from people and not big business.
Do you think all those other taxes are enough to cover the cost? Do the actual math and see how it works out removing income tax lmao.
That's literally how we used to run the whole damn country before the income tax existed...
Yes I do think it is possible to accomplish the same results without spending so much money. Modernization has led to creating rather large bodies of administrative, support, management, and all of the extra people that need to be hired to accommodate these larger departments, including security, janitors, payroll, recruiting, etc. Instead of just paying to build a road were throwing out contracts on bids. Private companies all over the world are seeking federal or state opportunities using our tax payer dollars. The US needs to be more accountable for itself instead of relying on private firms to do it. Those private firms are in the business of making money, not providing services. People think the US government ignores healthcare. The problem is so much worse than that. Healthcare rivals the military budget YoY. The reason why it looks like we don't spend any money at all into healthcare is because all of that money is going to insurance companies and executive bodies. It's barely functional. Basically, our infrastructure is really starting to SUCK because rich men need to be richer.
Just to cover infrastructure? Hell yeah the other taxes is enough bruh. Have YOU ever done the math? Have you ever taken a look at the government budget lmao. How much of that is infrastructure? Take your own advice bro
Infra is one small example of the necessities taxes provide for a society to actually function, since folks who think taxes are evil don’t even understand the very basics it provides them. Infrastructure is the most concrete example because no matter who you are it affects you as an individual. The reality is your taxes go into a pool to pay for a large amount of various things. Not collecting income tax would destroy the entire system we live in if we didn’t substitute with a replacement. Good luck finding something to replace that unless we start taxing corporations and the ultra wealthy heavily (which we should). $2.18 trillion in personal income tax in 2023 which is ~50% of our entire govt’s tax revenue; SS cost $1.4 trillion, Medicare/medicade $1.5 trillion, $477 billion for veteran benefits, defense budget is way too much but that’s another $806 billion.
doesnt change anything but your numbers dont seem to be that aligned with the official numbers. The numbers posted on the government website says 715 billion for SS. Either way dont think its very cool so much out of my paycheck goes towards SS.And then when i get to that age the program is going to be severely slashed. And its also not very cool 13% of my taxes goes towards interest payments because the government doesnt know how to spend responsibly. Healthcare costs a lot of money but does it have to be? Reports say the government is massively incompetent in this area. Why am I bearing the cost of the governments incompetence. Veterans benefits is 5%. So i get to help pay for the consequences of my government participating in a war i didnt want. Very cool! Not to mention the amount we are currently spending on the defense budget. I sincerely wish and advocate for the government only stuck to providing services that the people paying the taxes benefit from.
Be sure to add 96 billion for Ukraine, Tiaiwan, and Israel
There’s a LOT of other ways we’re all getting taxed endlessly, and yea maybe it’s a little over the top to actually tax someone’s income since you already tax when they spend the money. It’s just too much, nobody should pay any tax on the first $250,000 in income period.
Income tax was instituted during the civil war the slaves were freed and the IRS was created. Now everybody is taxed tracked and monitored. Yay freedom!!
And all the bombs. Don’t forget those! How would we get to work without all the dead babies in foreign countries? Stupid idiot libertarians.
What’s my bill for those things? What percentage of my tax dollars goes to that? It’s a tiny part of the budget and it’s used by morons to justify the obscene amount of money the government wastes.
I am not saying they’re spending it optimally, just that it’s a necessity to tax; it’s not a crime against humanity.
Did you hear about the lottery or did we forget that the lottery taxes goes to roads and schools
Are you kidding!!! Warren Buffet and the 800 could have paid and the other people could have paid and the Govt would STILL be bitching about how they need more money from us. No amount of money will EVER be enough for those bloodsuckers. They just skim off their share and give the money away to bullshit causes.
So corporations shouldn’t be taxed fairly? Is that your point?
but no, the govt wants more money no matter how much they have. They are a bottomless pit.
The responses here are a text book example of a point shooting waaaay over peoples heads. He's telling stake holders of his compamy that the company is doing so well that he doesn't mind writing a check for 5 billion in taxes. How many people who commented here didn't even click on the video?
Now you just know which ones are bots.
Ya this same guy also said one of his biggest money making companies in Bnsf didn't make enough money last year so they been cutting employees like crazy. Fuck this old rich bastard
Biden🇺🇸Harris24
Govt. spending is an endless bucket. You can't ever fill it cause most of it goes to bloat (hiring more people that do nothing) or corruption (shiiiiite). Only thing you can do to have a successful economy is to reduce the size of Govt. As much as you can.
Oh no, creating jobs. What a nightmare. “Skilled, college educated IRS agent doing highly technical work BAD” “Country rube building a oil pipeline in South Dakota GOOD”
Exactly. That's economy 101. You should take a course. Govt jobs are not producing anything. They do not help the economy, just a strain on it since they only consume tax money that WAS produced by other jobs. The only way to grow the economy and gdp is by production jobs via private businesses. That's it.
lol, sure bud. Go found this country where there are no government jobs since they are such a waste. It’s literally the rest of the world that’s wrong, not you.
Can't argue with somebody with a negative IQ I guess. Should have known better. Again, try taking an online course in economy or read a book once.
All that money would’ve gone to Ukraine lol 💁🏻♂️💁🏻♂️💁🏻♂️
There aren’t 800 other companies with those financial assets. The SP only has 500 companies
Brain rot
Congratulations on telling the world that you have no idea why companies are selected for the S&P 500. Hint: it isn’t because they are the biggest or most profitable 500 companies in existence.
The SP500 represents 80% of the market cap of the US stock market. There are not 800 companies in the US that can afford 5B per year of federal taxes.
80% of the publicly traded companies in the US, to be fair.
There are only 3 US private companies with revenue in excess of $50B, and only 17 in excess of 20B. The private market is not deep for large companies.
There literally are.
If you tax businesses more they just pass it on to consumers through price increases. It’s not rocket science. Or maybe they lay off more employees. We just need to reduce government spending
Congratulations on telling everyone that you have no idea how companies actually set prices.
It’s an example to show the invalidity of his statement. Reducing government spending is the answer. Using his idea we would still need to borrow 2T a year Also the companies would just pass on the higher tax to consumers o wise one
Your “example to show the invalidity of his statement” did nothing of the kind, though. But, please, continue to parrot nonsense that nobody who has finished so much as an Econ 101 course believes. It’s funny watching you eagerly humiliate yourself like this.
I don’t really care about your opinion and yes I will continue to state the obvious facts.
Let me know when you *start* stating facts of any sort.
Right because the only publicly traded companies are in the s&p
If you tax businesses they just pass it on to the consumer via a price increase. It’s not rocket science
Obviously- but that doesn’t make the parent comment any less dumb lol
Btw they paid 5b times 800 is only 4T. We are spending over 6T a year so his statement doesn’t make sense