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Jeff Bezos is the founder and CEO of the multinational technology company Amazon. (a file)
Many of the world’s most prominent billionaires have paid little or no federal income taxes in some years, ProPublica reported Tuesday, citing confidential Internal Revenue Service records it reviewed.
The Richest Individual in the World, CEO of Amazon.com Inc. , Jeff Bezos, did not pay any federal income tax in 2007 and 2011. The CEO of Tesla Inc. Elon Musk did the same in 2018. Bloomberg LP founder Michael Bloomberg and investors Carl Icahn and George Soros have also been shown to have paid minimal federal income tax rates in recent years.
Between 2014 and 2018, Warren Buffett’s fortune reportedly increased by as much as $24.3 billion, and he reportedly paid $23.7 million in taxes, according to data reviewed by ProPublica, with a “real tax rate” of 0.1%.
ProPublica says the data was submitted to the news organization after it published a series of articles for IRS examination. The news organization said it did not know the identity of the source and did not request the information sent to it.
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday that his agency is opening an investigation into the source of the information.
IRS investigation
“I can confirm that there is an investigation into the allegations that the source of the information in this article came from the IRS,” Rettig said. “I share every American’s concerns about the sensitive, private, and confidential nature of information received by the IRS.”
ProPublica says it has reached out to comment on all individuals whose taxes it describes. Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg and Carl Icahn all told ProPublica that they had paid their taxes.
Michael Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
Rettig said he could not comment directly on the article or on anyone’s tax situation. Federal employees could face imprisonment for improper release of private taxpayer data.
“This morning there is what appears to be a massive and unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer records,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden said at the hearing. “Given the IRS’ responsibility to protect taxpayer data, it has a responsibility to investigate the source of this disclosure,” he said.
“The richest country in this country, who have benefited tremendously during the pandemic, have not paid their fair share,” Wyden said.
Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate committee, said the ProPublica report was “very relevant” to the Biden administration’s proposal to require financial institutions to report account flows to the IRS, highlighting privacy concerns.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by the NDTV crew and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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