OMAHA, Nebraska — Warren Buffett, the man of modest living who leads one of the most successful investment firms in history, says the American People would no longer have to pay taxes, if the top companies would simply pay their fair share.
While it might sound outrageous, the numbers appear to back it up. Buffett spoke at an annual shareholder’s conference Saturday, outlining many of Berkshire-Hathaway’s recent financial decisions. That including cutting the amount invested in Apple and selling off their entire stake in Paramount for a loss.
During his talk, the 93-year-old said higher taxes must happen, because the nation will grow tired of endless government deficits. “They may decide that someday they don’t want the fiscal deficit to be this large because that has some important consequences, and they may not want to decrease spending a lot,” he said. Republicans have long railed against deficit spending, despite adding more to the national debt during Republican Administrations than Democratic ones over the last 40 years. The key difference between the two parties, the Republicans want to reduce the size of government to save money, while Democrats want the wealthiest Americans and corporations to pay “their fair share,” citing companies like Amazon who often get away with paying nothing to the federal government.
But Buffett suggested something more similar. He told those gathered that his company pays a 21% tax rate, sending about 5-billion dollars to the federal government last year. What he said next might have stunned many in the room. “If 800 other companies had done the same thing, no other person in the United States would have had to pay a dime of federal taxes, whether income taxes, no social security taxes, no estate taxes.”
It sounds outlandish, but the numbers appear to support the theory. Iowa’s News Now calculated the 2023 revenue from just the top 100 companies in the U.S. If all 100 paid the same tax rate as Buffett’s Berkshire-Hathaway, it would result in more than $2 Trillion in tax revenue for the U.S. Government, or nearly half of all tax revenue that currently comes into the U.S. Treasury.
Of course, a number of those companies do pay some sort of taxes already, but if you took the top 800 companies as Buffett suggests, it is possible that deficit spending could be greatly reduced, while eliminating taxes paid by citizens.
Such a proposal stands no chance of ever becoming reality, but Buffett has been a long promoted the idea that the wealthiest companies and individuals like himself should pay their fair share of taxes. Buffett is also one of several mega-billionaires to plan to give away most of his fortune. Last year, Buffett donated more than $5 billion dollars in company stock to five charities, bringing his lifetime total donations to more than $50 billion. Despite giving all that away, Buffett is still worth more than $130 billion dollars.
President Biden has called for a minimum tax on the wealthiest companies of 15%, while Republicans want to cut federal spending for programs like Social Security, Medicare, and entire sectors of the federal government. Last year’s federal deficit fell to $1.7 Trillion, with a total national debt of more than $34 Trillion and climbing.