The Truth about Warren Buffett

by Adam Nicholson - No Comments
Posted on August 18th, 2010 1:38 pm

Warren Buffett remains one of the primary opponents of estate tax repeal. Framing his arguments in terms of inequality and fairness, Buffett tries to appear as an unbiased, selfless prophet of tax justice. After all, how could it be dishonest for one of the world’s wealthiest men to demand that the government impose a punitive tax on his estate?

Plenty, as Ryan O’Donnell points out in a recent Human Events article.

Drawing on research previously published by AFBI’s president, Dick Patten, Ryan explains how Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s investment business, makes a tidy profit thanks to the estate tax:

Buffett’s support for the death tax is hardly altruistic. Dick Patten, executive director of the American Family Business Institute, writes: “In the process of building his company, Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Buffett benefited tremendously from death tax. In fact, the tax is critical to two of the three legs that make up Mr. Buffett’s financial stool.”

Ryan uses Buffett’s estate tax hypocrisy to deflate the general argument that the estate tax prevents wealth inequality and to draw attention back to the real issues at stake. Responding to the recent New York Times article about entrepreneur Dan Duncan, Ryan write:

the Times’ piece serves primarily to remind readers that the left’s obsession with income distribution and class warfare continues to obscure the truth about the death tax: it slows economic growth, destroys jobs, and suppresses wages because it is a tax on capital and entrepreneurship.

You can read Ryan’s full piece, here.

Do you have further questions about the claim that the estate tax prevents income inequality, or other typical arguments from the other side? See AFBI’s “Death Tax Fact Center” for cited, concise responses.

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