This is exactly why we should listen to a person like this. He knows how unfair this system is to those who earn money vs. play with money. As you point out, he did it legally, but he sees the system as flawed. The major changes to the tax structure that transferred wealth to the rich was the Bush era tax cuts, so during most of his career the taxes for the wealthy were much higher. Prior to Bush tax rates were significantly higher and probably in his mind fairer to the wealthy and those striving to be wealthy
Whether we should or shouldn't listen to him is not what I am, but you clearly are, debating. My point is that he is disingenious or hypicrytical at best and his actions prove it.
Personally, I think the estate tax is BS because it has already been taxed in many forms along the way and I don't have a problem with inheritances, which by the way still keeps money moving as subsquent generations typically squander it or invest it in new things - it is certainly better than going to the government. This is factually incorrect. Ask Rebelspy or anyone else who has significant real estate holdings how much income tax he pays on their rentals. With depreciation, credits, and other preferences the vast majority of those that have created a business have not paid income taxes anywhere close to what a person working would have paid. It is rare for those who are in Real Estate to pay income taxes of any significance, yet their net worth could be in the 10 to 100's of millions. The estate tax has a $5 million exemption for a single and a $10 million for a couple, so don't talk about the small business down the street. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's shares are very close to being 100% capital gains as they have never been taxed at the individual level
So in your mind real estate is the only investment option available, only super wealthy people do it, and creation of wealth by any other means (such as creating and growing a giant software company) is not possible. Arebelspy - what is like to be in the same company as Warren Buffett- who by the way is not a real estate investor?
But to your point, I do beleive there is a flaw in the tax code for real estate investments.
Also, $9billion was relatively recently and a fraction of his worth and pledging is not the same as giving.
The effective rate of corporations is very low compared to other countries. Again you can see that GE has paid virtually 0 tax in the past 10 years, yet has as a corporation has a 35% marginal tax rate. http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/03/30/456005/reminder-corporate-taxes-very-low Our top rates is never paid by our corporations. There so many deductions, credits and incentives.
I appreciate the link from what I can tell is an extremely biased site, but here is another that is based on the fed reserve and shows a higher rate. As for GE, they had a lot of losses too that help lowered the effective tax rate....just like all of the large banks and homebuilders and any other company that got really whacked during the financial crises...those losses were used to offset income in the last few years oh yeah and the rules were changed after the crisis to allow deductions/credits looking back so it resulted in massive tax refunds....stupid governement.
I don't hold him up as holy, but to discount him because, as you have emphasized, he has legally taken advantage of the tax system is a bit crazy. Those that know how the system works, should be the ones that we are listening to as we come up with a fair tax system. Gates and Buffett are not in the accumulation stages for their personal fortunes. They say and are acting on that they have too much, so they don't have a vested interest in screwing over the population to get a tax break. For those that chime in for them to write a check to the Treasury, you are missing the point that our tax system should not be an altruistic system. It should be fair and consistent to all the players. Right now he is pointing out that it is not fair to those that work and there is a huge windfall going to those who play with money for a living.
Doesn't need to be altruistic and "fair" is a subjective term. Still the fact remains that he didn't make these arguments until relatively recently even though he has been a billionaire for far longer.
Clearly you want to make this a policy or liberal vs. conservative debate - I do not, but I have done that elsewhere. This is about his actions vs. his words, words that are relatively recent.