The U.S. is investigating leaking records showing that billionaires pay few taxes

U.S. tax authorities have launched an investigation into a leak of private records of billionaires such as Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Mike Bloomberg and Elon Musk, which showed that many of them have paid little. taxes even as his wealth grew.

ProPublica published details of what he called “a lot of data from the Internal Revenue Service” covering more than 15 years of tax returns for thousands of the wealthiest Americans. The non-profit investigative journalism company did not reveal the origin of the leak.

His report concluded that legal tax avoidance strategies had allowed the 25 richest Americans to pay only $ 13.6 billion in federal income taxes in the five years to 2018, despite the growing value of the his shares, properties and other assets had inflated his estimated wealth of about $ 401 billion.

Charles Rettig, el IRS Commissioner, he told a Senate finance committee hearing that the agency had opened an investigation to find out the source of the leak. He said he shared “the concerns of all Americans” that confidential confidential information be disclosed.

Jen Psaki, a White House press secretary, said “any unauthorized disclosure of confidential government information by a person with access” was “illegal” and was taken “very seriously.” He noted the IRS’s referral of the leak to the Treasury Department’s inspector general for the tax administration, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia.

However, Psaki also said the leak revealed that “there is much more to be done to ensure that companies and individuals” pay “more than their fair share” in taxes, as proposed by the president. Joe Biden.

The richest people in the country, who benefited greatly during the pandemic, have not paid their fair share

Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York and U.S. presidential candidate, pledged to use “all legal means” to uncover the source of the leak. The founder of the eponymous financial information group backtracked on the premise of the article, saying it “scrupulously obeys the letter and spirit of the law” and distributes about three-quarters of its annual income in taxes and charitable donations.

“The publication of a private citizen’s tax returns should raise real privacy issues regardless of political affiliation or views on fiscal policy,” it said in a statement. “We intend to use all legal means at our disposal to determine which person or government entity leaked them and make sure they are responsible.”

The leak comes like some Democrats defend a tax on the total wealth of the wealthiest Americans, rather than focusing on annual income that can be offset by deductions, indebtedness, and investment losses.

Elizabeth Warren, the U.S. senator from Massachusetts, introduced legislation this spring to apply a 2% tax to people with a net worth of more than $ 50 million, with an additional 1% surcharge imposed on anyone wealth in excess of $ 1 billion. President Joe Biden has it proposed increases in the capital gains tax and dividend tax rate for those who earn more than $ 1 million but have not supported wealth tax.

Warren seized on the ProPublica report, writing on Twitter showing that it was time “to get the ultra-rich to finally pay their fair share.”

Morris Pearl, chairman of a group of wealthy, highest-tax advocates for the rich called Patriotic Millionaires, said the report reinforced his argument that wealthier Americans “can basically choose whether to pay taxes or not.”

Wealth taxes and higher unrealized capital gains taxes his group advocated were “marginal ideas” when it launched in 2010, he said, but sentiment had changed and ProPublica’s disclosures could increase the support.

Bloomberg and Buffett have been among the billionaires calling for higher taxes on the richest Americans for several years, but the economic differences exposed by the pandemic have increased political stakes.

ProPublica said it had decided to reveal the details “because only by seeing details can the public understand the realities of the country’s tax system.”

Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who chairs the Senate finance committee, said the ProPublica report had shown that “the country’s richest countries, which made huge profits during the pandemic, have not paid their fair share “.