We all remember how much fun Obama had with Warren Buffett's double-talking bullshit about how he was taxed at a lower rate than his secretary (only because his income is thru dividends). At the same time, his company had been in a years long fight with the IRS over his corporate taxes.

But NOW look how eager he is for Obama to get his hands on his money. I guess he must have a lot minimum-wage workers under his umbrella . And I'm guessing he doesn't share Obama's views on the minimum wage. (M4M note: Not that I do either, but this is his best-billionaire bud!)


IRS Oversees Taxes And Obamacare. Now Warren Buffett Wants IRS In Welfare Too

5/24/2015

Mega-BillionaireWarren Buffett is awfully savvy, the most successful investor of all time. He has become a strangely hybrid cult figure. A kind of public sage, he is a bellwether of what we all should do. In the language of the 1960s, Mr. Buffett is part of the establishment.

Yet he likes simple things, managing to appeal to everyman. Despite public hostility toward the super-rich, Mr. Buffett is always revered, making many perpetually hungry for the facts they never knew about Warren Buffett. He even says he wants higher tax rates, almost mounting a crusade. Heck, I should pay more than my secretary, he famously complained.

Of course, Mr. Buffett is famously shrewd when it comes to shaving taxes off his own wealth, with a way of supersizing Buffett tax deductions. And he is deft at entirely side-stepping or shaving quite close all taxes off the endless parade of corporate deals his army of companies keeps acquiring.

In the corporate world, Mr. Buffett plays a non-stop Game of Thrones. Truly, no one else can bend it like Buffett. All of this makes it especially unfortunate that Mr. Buffett is championing bringing the IRS into an even larger role than it already has. In aWall StreetJournalopinion piece, Mr. Buffett says we should expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and not raise the minimum wage.

As Mr. Buffett puts it, “The process is simple: You file a tax return, and the government sends you a check.” Many tax lawyers, accountants and return preparers who deal with IRS issues daily are scratching their heads. Any American who has dealt with an IRS snafu—and there are many—should be too. Already, a Treasury Department watchdog has admitted that the IRS Made $133 Billion in Improper EITC Payments.

And the horrible tally keeps going up every year, with the earned income tax credit still being plagued with terribly high error rates. We pay out billions to the wrong people. And some of the right people don’t get what they should get. Fraud is rampant. And then there is the whole undocumented worker issue!

Republicans are already upset at President Obama for his Executive Action that many still say is illegal. Then, the IRS weighed in saying that millions of illegals who never paid U.S. tax, could get 3 years of tax refunds! That prompted bills to stop tax refunds to illegals under the Obama immigration action.

And through it all, Mr. Buffett avoids flack for doing deals that seem to contradict his “raise my taxes” mantra. For example, Burger King went Canadian, an ideal way for a company to reduce U.S. taxes on foreign income. The burger company’s takeover of Canadian Tim Hortons Inc. was sweetened by Mr. Buffett, who agreed to help finance it. A lower corporate tax rate in Canada was clearly attractive.

Mr. Buffett said the Burger King deal is different from transactions in which companies shift valuable intellectual property to other nations. His defenders say he has a fiduciary duty to company shareholders to be tax-efficient. Yet he does it personally too, usually making donations with appreciated stock. He gave $2.6 billion to charity in 2013, and $2.8 billion in 2014. Big gifts went to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other charities.

Was it cash? Of course not! The famously savvy CEO did it in stock, giving 21.7 million shares of his company’s class B stock. Valued at $128.98 per share, it reduced his holdings to $63.1 billion. $2.1 billion worth of shares (16.59 million of them) went to Bill Gates’ charity, the Gates Foundation.

Mr. Buffett is always careful to plan transactions efficiently so he pays less. Like a long term investment that pays off, perhaps there’s something satisfying in arranging a deal that is tax-efficient. Like an Omaha steak. But there’s nothing satisfying about saddling the IRS with even a larger role in American life. Nothing.

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I think Buffett should stuff Lois Lerner up his ass if he wants that warm, fuzzy IRS feeling.

 

Buffet talks a good game about philanthropy and such but is more full of shit than a christmas turkey. As an employee of buffet's he does not believe in helping the lower income working class at all. I think this horseshit about the IRS getting involved in things like welfare is another of his ideas to keep him and his kind on the level they are on, and using the power of the government to keep as many people as possible at or below poverty. They don't like it when middle-class or even poor people have an opportunity to move up into the status of being filthy rich.

 

Taxing welfare/SS is essentially taking back what what the government gave in the first place. If it's really that required, save paper work, and just give less in the first place.

 

Buffett is a, do as I say, not as I do kind of guy...

 

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

 

Social Security and MediCare as well as "welfare" are programs paid for by tax payers once, re-taxing that would be unconstitutional.

 

Since most SS/public welfare benefits are below the minimum level for taxation, they are virtually tax free. However, when someone receives those benefits and they are the recipients of other income, the benefits are counted in the total income.

 

If you did the research you would find that if the recipient had an outside income above a certain point they would be stripped of the SS/ welfare incomes.

 

Not true, after full SS normal retirement age is attained, there is no cap on other income. Before you reach NRA, $1 deducted from benefits for every $2 in income above $15,700.

 

Then tell that to my own mother who has a cap on outside income.

 

I wonder what taxes on Bill Gates retirement are.

 

I'll let the Social Security Administration tell her.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/rtea.html

How the earnings test works
The retirement earnings test applies only to people below normal retirement age (NRA). Social Security withholds benefits if your earnings exceed a certain level, called a retirement earnings test exempt amount, and if you are under your NRA. One of two different exempt amounts apply — a lower amount in years before the year you attain NRA and a higher amount in the year you attain NRA. These exempt amounts generally increase annually with increases in the national average wage index.

It is important to note that any benefits withheld while you continue to work are not "lost". Once you reach NRA, your monthly benefit will be increased permanently to account for the months in which benefits were withheld.​

 

I have read that as well just like you, I also notice that you omitted the part that proves you wrong in the $1 for $2 idea since they report it as $1 for $3.
But when you are the one getting the letters telling you that what you sold on ebay is almost in violation of their policies, then talk about what you do not know.

 

You do not seem to be able to comprehend the rules as written.

The $1 for 2 or 1 for 3, relate to different scenarios. The 1 for 2 is all earnings before you reach the NRA, the 1 for 3 is for the months of the year that fell before your birthday.

Please don't try to tell me about SS earning limits, I actually live with them and have for 15 years.

 

Then tell me how a 70 year old woman, retired from the state of Texas as a nurse is receiving letters from the SSA telling her that she has too much of an outside income and is at risk of losing benefits is supposed to believe it is actually being done? Kiss my ass with that putrid sanctimony shit about living on it for 15 years.

 

I get those too. They want bank statements to prove my income is less than poverty. My income is actually zero.

 

Tell you what genius, if your mother is 70, is receiving SSA letters that she is at risk of losing benefits because of excessive income, she needs to contact the SSA and tell them to update their records, because the maximum NRA is 67 today.

Now perhaps you mother is receiving disability insurance payments, which play by slightly different rules, but essentially have the same age/earning requirements.

Your argument is not with me, but with the SSA.

PS: I am not living on it, I am living with it.

 

You must be receiving disability benefits and not retirement.

 

It's SSD, but if I don't ever get over my fear of working, this could be my retirement.

 

It is deducted from your pretax earnings, so it is not taxed twice.