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C'mon now, you can't expect decabillionaires to pay more/any taxes: they'll up and leave the country and then who will create jobs and fund Super PACs?! https://t.co/NwatJA93gd
— Kontra (@counternotions) June 8, 2021
The most exciting thing is wondering who gave them the information, and how long that person will spend in jail when they're caught, as I suspect they will be.
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) June 8, 2021
haha sick, we are telling refugees not to come into the country and going into debt for basic health care, meanwhile jeff bezos is paying no taxes and going on vacation to the literal moon https://t.co/Oh8QkVC5gX
— Casey Johnston (@caseyjohnston) June 8, 2021
This is just a supremely ironic statement from a man who owns one of the world's largest news orgs.
— Ryan Mac? (@RMac18) June 8, 2021
Bloomberg's distaste for personal scrutiny also reminds me of why he's nowhere to be found on Bloomberg News' own billionaires index. He doesn't allow it: https://t.co/BnRY9l9ZWr pic.twitter.com/OLyHYop3hf
BREAKING: This morning @propublica has what I consider the most important story we have ever published.
— Richard Tofel (@dicktofel) June 8, 2021
It concerns a trove of secret IRS files we were given on the tax returns of the nation’s richest people. The findings are extraordinary.https://t.co/8aS94eaMj4
I’m not sure it was worth whoever leaked this info going to prison in order to reveal mainly that you don’t pay capital gains taxes on stocks until you sell them. https://t.co/8qgMGihjaY
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) June 8, 2021
New: We are disclosing the tax details of the richest Americans because we believe the public interest in an informed debate outweighs privacy considerations.https://t.co/s67JpUbbnZ
— ProPublica (@propublica) June 8, 2021
The 25 richest Americans are collectively worth $1.1 trillion. It takes 14.3 million average wage earners to tally the same wealth. The average earner group paid literally 70 times as much in income taxes in 2018 as the 25.
— Richard Tofel (@dicktofel) June 8, 2021
If so, I see two possibilities:
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) June 8, 2021
1) The IRS was hacked, which would be a huge scandal, and make you wonder just how many tax returns the hackers have.
2) Employee, which would make you wonder just how bad IRS IT security is, and how good the employee was at covering their tracks
The origin of The Tax Files: Someone sent ProPublica "the private tax data of some of our nation's richest citizens." The publication doesn't know the identity of the source. "We did not solicit the info." Here's the editor's note about why it's newsworthy https://t.co/HL2Dl1B1Sh
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 8, 2021
Is there any country in the world where unrealized capital gains are taxed as income? Why encumber a fantastic scoop with this bizarre framing? https://t.co/3aBR7ARsu6 pic.twitter.com/zmsTkzwZ9A
— Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) June 8, 2021
That's... an egregiously misleading framing.
— Sylvain Ribes (@ArtPlaie) June 8, 2021
"True tax rate" wtf, nobody was ever taxed on their net change in wealth.
Would you ask the IRS to collect billions when their wealth grew, and return them when it shrank?
That'll make accountants rich, but nobody else.
And panama papers. Another example of tax information illegally obtained and published that was nevertheless extremely newsworthy.
— Pwn All The Things (@pwnallthethings) June 8, 2021
Assume you spent $10K on Bitcoin or stocks last year. Value doubles, now worth $20K and pay say 15% tax ($3K) out of pocket. They’ve crashed this year, now worth $8K. So you paid $3K tax on a $2K loss.
— Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life) June 8, 2021
Do you get a refund? Or should you just be taxed on selling not owning stock?
I'm all for calling out billionaires who don't pay taxes, but the reasoning here seems flawed at best? https://t.co/GEj7ttuV9z
— Frederic Lardinois (@fredericl) June 8, 2021
Everything these guys did was perfectly legal.
— Matt Largey (@mattlargey) June 8, 2021
But that’s exactly the problem. https://t.co/kWce4nIKe1
From 2014 to 2018, centibillionaire Warren Buffett paid "a true tax rate of 0.1 percent, or less than 10 cents for every $100 he added to his wealth." https://t.co/RVfP2ICmaN
— David Gura (@davidgura) June 8, 2021
will never be over the fact that people who do labor get a fucking 40 percent tax rate while people who make money in their sleep because they already have money to do it with are taxed half that pic.twitter.com/NzBnAJE1MZ
— Casey Johnston (@caseyjohnston) June 8, 2021
This isn't a case where you could have gotten one person's partial records from an accountant or a disgruntled ex-spouse. Practically speaking, unless all the billionaires have the same tax attorney, I suspect the only place the data could have come from is the IRS itself.
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) June 8, 2021
Bezos once claimed a $4000 tax credit https://t.co/4s3zq4T2jV
— Michael Koncewicz (@MikeKoncewicz) June 8, 2021
Tax stories can cause people's eyes to glaze over, which is why ProPublica's real feat isn't just getting and reporting out the data (which, wow) but explaining it in terms that everyone can understand. Just an incredible accomplishment. https://t.co/7lcFWLvbAW
— Ryan Mac? (@RMac18) June 8, 2021
“Those 25 people saw their worth rise a collective $401 billion from 2014 to 2018. They paid a total of $13.6 billion in federal income taxes in those five years, the IRS data shows. That’s a staggering sum, but it amounts to a true tax rate of only 3.4%.” https://t.co/D7qM5PQvdf
— Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) June 8, 2021
and this is why the fantasy of “just tax the uber wealthy” is just that. They have the accountants, lawyers, and lobbyists on their side. Build broad-based middle class wealth and lift people from poverty, tax that (fairly)! Don’t fixate on the edge cases, grow the middle https://t.co/fdrxG4mxlf
— Jeff Nolan ??? (@jeffnolan) June 8, 2021
New: @ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.https://t.co/qdLfDo10mF
— ProPublica (@propublica) June 8, 2021
Amazing. ProPublica has secret IRS files confirming- the ultra-rich frequently pay almost no taxes at all. Bezos even took the $4k child tax credit one year. https://t.co/zTX0kRRfbR
— Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) June 8, 2021
For its great report on how the richest Americans pay no taxes, @propublica admits they have no idea who their anonymous source is who provided these tax docs - could be foreign actors, a criminal, anyone. But they're publishing anyway: and they should.https://t.co/fii8Or1geb pic.twitter.com/RMqeiHzcTm
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 8, 2021
Also worth noting perhaps that Bloomberg also did reporting on Trump's taxes, which (SFAICT) were illegally obtained by whomever gave them to NYT, even if they were obviously newsworthy.
— Pwn All The Things (@pwnallthethings) June 8, 2021
Literally describing how income tax works as a “tax avoidance strategy” is a great example of narrative over facts. pic.twitter.com/8vs8u2RPvs
— Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life) June 8, 2021
Also it helps to have gems like this pic.twitter.com/FSZVge4l4C
— Ryan Mac? (@RMac18) June 8, 2021
Turns out that many of the ultra wealthy pay NO income taxes for entire years— Soros three times, Bezos and Icahn twice, Musk and Bloomberg once. Bezos one year even claimed a $4000 child credit.
— Richard Tofel (@dicktofel) June 8, 2021
Most of Europe has already done a U-turn on wealth taxes.
— Deathswap (@Deathswap1) June 8, 2021
They're practically very expensive to implement, leads to massive disputes over the valuation of private businesses & private assets, and problems for people with lots of assets and little cash.
It’s kinda weird Pro Publica just discovered unrealized gains aren’t taxed, but I don’t understand why they needed to publish people’s tax records to share that with the world.
— parker (@pt) June 8, 2021
Can’t believe someone had the ability to leak tax records and instead of getting Trump’s taxes let everyone in on the “secret” that America taxes income not wealth so billionaires don’t pay billions in taxes just for owning successful companies.
— Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life) June 8, 2021
Wow. ??♂️https://t.co/IALqszOMkf
“We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes.” https://t.co/ARpp9cI3df
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) June 8, 2021
This ProPublica investigation shows that the true tax rate of some of the wealthiest individuals in the United States -- billionaires who saw their riches surge by billions - paid a "true tax rate" of about...3.4%. https://t.co/cpy6n9DnQ7
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) June 8, 2021
It “demolishes the cornerstone myth of the American tax system: that everyone pays their fair share and the richest Americans pay the most…the wealthiest can — perfectly legally — pay income taxes that are only a tiny fraction of [their] hundreds of millions, if not billions…” https://t.co/sFuyc8R6kV
— Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) June 8, 2021
NEW: Today @ProPublica presents The Secret IRS Files. We have obtained a vast trove of never-before-seen tax data on thousands of the richest Americans covering more than 15 years. (THREAD)https://t.co/M9XrLLoihT
— Jesse Eisinger (@eisingerj) June 8, 2021
As a percentage of their gains in wealth, Buffett has paid 0.1% (10 cents on every $100), Bezos 1.1%, Bloomberg 1.3%, the 25 richest as a group just 3.4%.
— Richard Tofel (@dicktofel) June 8, 2021
Even on just their income, the richest pay less than 16%, far below the 37% top rate:https://t.co/ytdjPZGdiI
A truly rare glimpse into how capital escapes taxation. For the most part, the tactics described in the article aren’t even exotic tax avoidance — it’s an inequity built into the system. https://t.co/4xHKcYcyCR
— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) June 8, 2021
*rubs temples into a fine powder* https://t.co/S8fWzJ0E6M
— VICE (@VICE) June 8, 2021
Billionaires can dodge income, capital gains, corporate, and estate taxes pretty easily. They can, for example, simply never sell an asset and instead use it as collateral for a loan that will only cost them a single digit interest rate! https://t.co/50UlsUZX9d
— Edward Ongweso Jr (@bigblackjacobin) June 8, 2021
#Money #Wealth #Billionaires #TaxTheRich THIS IS NO SURPRISE —> Elon Musk Paid No Federal Income Taxes In 2018, ProPublica Reports - VICE https://t.co/i8FoPpurzu
— Lulu Walcott ? Medicare For All & GND ? (@LuluWalcott1) June 8, 2021
Whoever leaked this is a national hero. Protect them at all cost. https://t.co/naLgeTe8Ir
— Alice Speri (@alicesperi) June 8, 2021
ProPublica:
— Hamza Shaban (@hshaban) June 8, 2021
"We also believe that disclosure of specific figures about the tax returns of people like Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett and Elon Musk will deepen readers’ interest and understanding of this complex and arcane subject."https://t.co/tinUmwH9OP
Here’s a note from @steveengelberg and I about why we’re publishing, and what we’re saying about sourcing, privacy and the law:https://t.co/QUNAsdHwBt
— Richard Tofel (@dicktofel) June 8, 2021
ProPublica acknowledges the billionaire tax docs they obtained may have been hacked, even from a foreign state actor, but that doesn’t change any of the news value of the underlying information — a vital distinction in journalism. https://t.co/87I2IOy2qQ
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) June 8, 2021
“We believe that disclosing the identities of billionaires who paid little to no taxes in years their fortunes grew by billions of dollars will help readers understand the magnitude of the tax advantages the ultrarich enjoy.” https://t.co/ohyV6DTfIu
— Charles Ornstein (@charlesornstein) June 8, 2021
ProPublica defends the potential they used hacked material, to include potentially by the SVR, because of its authenticity and public value, citing places (like Wisconsin!) w/ open records, & previous times hacked data contained public interest stories.https://t.co/394l4zAOJa pic.twitter.com/3akiZtZ0Iy
— Active Measures, LLC (@FCDserviceA_llc) June 8, 2021
"A federal law ostensibly makes it a criminal offense to disclose tax return information. But we do not believe that law would be constitutional if applied to bar or sanction publication of a story in the public interest..."https://t.co/JnL7dUGl2F
— Tessa Duvall (@TessaDuvall) June 8, 2021
This is more than a little disturbing from @propublica https://t.co/N6Wyqwyh7p pic.twitter.com/pfUlOwEiua
— David Frum (@davidfrum) June 8, 2021
Not that this is an answer to your framing critique, but I appreciate Propublica issued this separate piece talking about why they chose to publish this private data https://t.co/XMAL7aWijz
— Philip Hackney (@EOTaxProf) June 8, 2021
"We live in an age in which people with access to information can copy it with the click of a mouse and transmit it in a variety of ways to news organizations." ? https://t.co/pKFIiDjfcm
— Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) June 8, 2021
"We believe that disclosing the identities of billionaires who paid little to no taxes in years their fortunes grew by billions of dollars will help readers understand the magnitude of the tax advantages the ultrarich enjoy." https://t.co/k3U4R8U5uW
— John Schwartz (@jswatz) June 8, 2021
Why We Are Publishing the Tax Secrets of the .001% https://t.co/LGkh8gof4s
— Farai Chideya (@farai) June 8, 2021
Really thoughtful explanation from @propublica about why they're publishing tax info for the wealthiest Americans, which they received from an anonymous source. They considered that the info might come from "a state actor hostile to American interests." https://t.co/tVlUXXuHqK
— Kim Zetter (@KimZetter) June 8, 2021
ProPublica editors, acknowledging they don't know identity of source, write: "Nearly everyone who provides material to a reporter is doing so in ways that reflect their worldview, agenda or biases...motives are irrelevant if the information is reliable." https://t.co/QY93RlxZ4K
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) June 8, 2021
Here’s @propublica's methodology on calculating true tax rates as a percentage of gains in wealth by the richest, as well as relative tax burdens on average wage earners:https://t.co/9jTdrFfGqL
— Richard Tofel (@dicktofel) June 8, 2021
A few supplemental reads that are also worth looking at:
— Elizabeth May (semi-hiatus) (@_ElizabethMay) June 8, 2021
Methodology: https://t.co/Pab4ttXS1A
And the reason publishing billionaire tax information is in the public interest: https://t.co/Dg1XT3dYKP
#ElonMusk paid ZERO federal tax in 2018.
— Brian Jones (@TraderBJones) June 8, 2021
Now that's why they call him a Genius!
Elon Musk Paid No Federal Income Taxes in 2018, ProPublica Reports https://t.co/hcEROS8j0x via @vice
Only slaves pay taxes in this dystopia. https://t.co/q8cNHsxo2z
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) June 8, 2021
“In 2015, he paid $68,000 in federal income tax. In 2017, it was $65,000, and in 2018 he paid no federal income tax,” according to ProPublica. https://t.co/9SJOgtn5ON
— Motherboard (@motherboard) June 8, 2021
The top 25 richest Americans gained $401 billion from 2014 to 2018, but only paid $13.6 billion—3.4 percent of that—in federal income taxes. https://t.co/xr5D0AY2Lr
— Motherboard (@motherboard) June 9, 2021
ProPublica explains why it's publishing the tax secrets of wealthy Americans.
— Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (@lorenzofb) June 8, 2021
They also explain how they dealt with an anonymous source (sounds a lot like source/docs came through SecureDrop), and considered whether the documents came from a hack. https://t.co/stYQUS45o6
The tax return of everyone in the 1% should be public (as it is in some countries) https://t.co/YCvbFDoO2M
— Nils Gilman (@nils_gilman) June 9, 2021
Why We Are Publishing the Tax Secrets of the .001% https://t.co/AHgjUWON14
— Karol Cummins (@karolcummins) June 9, 2021
American taxes in brief: Poor people pay nothing. Wage earners owe more as their income rises, up to 37 percent. The wealth gains of the super-rich go untaxed. They pay only 15.8 percent on income they declare, the same rate as someone earning $45K. https://t.co/k2wH9kTvte
— Stephen Engelberg (@SteveEngelberg) June 8, 2021
This is how you pay for universal child care, free college, medicare for all, a green new deal...https://t.co/naLgeTe8Ir
— Alice Speri (@alicesperi) June 8, 2021
Someone sent ProPublica the private tax data of some of America's richest citizens.
— Nieman Lab (@NiemanLab) June 8, 2021
"We do not know the identity of our source. We did not solicit the information they sent us." https://t.co/ApcCsE398k
"We believe that disclosing the identities of billionaires who paid little to no taxes in years their fortunes grew by billions of dollars will help readers understand the magnitude of the tax advantages the ultrarich enjoy." https://t.co/1PHzC9stZR
— Lisa Tozzi (@lisatozzi) June 8, 2021
In a separate essay, ProPublica's top editors explain why publishing tax stories about the richest people in the country serves the public interest and discuss the ethical and legal issues at playhttps://t.co/tinUmwH9OP pic.twitter.com/LhGgIIb4JB
— Hamza Shaban (@hshaban) June 8, 2021
ProPublica says that ”we do not know identity of our source” that leaked the tax data.
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) June 8, 2021
To the point about transparency, here’s the editors note.https://t.co/0ZuMTQkS4G pic.twitter.com/UH0f2hmeor