Thursday, August 18, 2011

Taxing Warren Buffett

In today's Los Angeles Times, a great editorial piece was written titled "Taxing Warren Buffet" which discusses how Republican critics are seemingly oblivious that, in many ways, Buffett's tax ideas mirror those of Ronald Reagan.

Believe it or not it has been a quarter of a century since the last comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. tax code. President Reagan signed the Tax Reform Act of 1986 in which:

* the number of tax brackets was reduced
* loopholes here closed
* the top tax rate was lowered
* capital gains were taxed at the same rate as ordinary income

Unfortunately Congress has slowly reinstated loopholes back into the tax code while lowering the tax burden for wealthy people who make money through investments rather than labor. THIS was the basis for Buffett's complaint.

Now its interesting what the current politicians are saying on both side of the aisles! History is cyclical and in the past few years I keep hearing "isn't that what President Reagan did 25 years ago". Read on this LA Times article....but maybe we should learn from our past.



Taxing Warren Buffett

Jaime Rojas, Jr.

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