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New Delhi: In a most shocking revelation, it has come to the fore that some of the world’s known billionaires Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos and others paid ‘minimal to zero’ federal income tax in some years.
The bombshell report compiled by New York-based journalism nonprofit ProPublica has revealed that Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos paid no income tax in 2007 and 2011, while Tesla chief Elon Musk avoided all payments in 2018.
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ProPublica reported the tax evasion citing confidential Internal Revenue Service records it had reviewed. This comes amid Washington considering new proposals to bring the tax avoidance by the wealthiest individuals and companies into the net.
Who are the world’s richest evading taxes?
Besides Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, Bloomberg LP founder Michael Bloomberg and investors Carl Icahn and George Soros were also shown to have paid minimal rates of federal income tax in recent years.
Between 2014 and 2018, Warren Buffett’s wealth is estimated to have increases by as much as $24.3 billion and the investor payed $23.7 million in taxes, according to the data ProPublica reviewed, a “true tax rate” of 0.1 per cent.
ProPublica’s report is based on Internal Revenue Serivce tax returns of extremely wealthy people over more than 15 years.
What’s the issue with the source of report?
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.
“I can confirm that there is an investigation with respect to the allegations that the source of the information in that article came from the Internal Revenue Service,” Rettig said, according to Bloomberg report. “I share the concerns of every American for the sensitive and private nature and confidential nature of the information the IRS receives.”
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden said at the hearing, “Given the IRS’s responsibility to protect taxpayer data, it has a responsibility to investigate the source of this disclosure.”
“This country’s wealthiest, who profited immensely during the pandemic, have not been paying their fair share,” Wyden said. Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate panel, said the ProPublica report is “very relevant” to the Biden administration’s proposal to require financial institutions to report account flows to the IRS, highlighting privacy concerns.
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