Released today.
Warren Buffett replied this week to a Republican request that he reveal his tax returns, revealing he made more than $62 million in income last year while paying $15,300 in payroll taxes.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) sent an open letter last month to the billionaire investor, who has become the big-business mascot for the Obama administration’s plan to raise taxes on the wealthy, demanding that reveal his tax returns.
According to Huelskamp — in a view expressed by other Republicans including Sens. John Cornyn (Texas) and Jim DeMint (S.C.) — if Buffett’s views on tax rates are going to serve as the basis for the White House’s proposals, Congress should be allowed to examine the basis of his argument. Buffett has cited his own tax rate as being lower than that of his secretary when making his case for raising taxes on him and his “ultra rich” friends.
Buffett revealed in a letter sent to Huelskamp that his adjusted gross income was $62,855,038 last year and that he paid $15,300 in payroll taxes, as reported by CNN Money. He also claimed, as he had in an op-ed previously this year, that his federal income tax bill last year came to $6,923,494, or about 17 percent of his $39,814,784 taxable income.
In related news, my friend John Soltz of VoteVets, currently serving his third term in Afghanistan, reports that he paid more than a 17% income tax rate last year.
Something's terribly wrong.
