Warren Buffett: "I Have Paid Federal Income Tax Every Year Since 1944"



Warren Buffet - Hands in the air - Green and black LCD background. Year 2013Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump has been taking hits on a number of different fronts lately, including his carrying forward of operating losses in order to legally minimize his taxes in future years.

This issue came to the forefront last week when the top pages of Trump's 1995 state tax returns were released anonymously. The top pages of his return show that he reported operating losses of over $900 million in the 1995 fiscal year and that he was carrying those losses forward.

Donald Trump admitted to this in last night's debate, claiming that other billionaires, including Warren Buffett and George Soros, do the same thing, and that he knows the tax code better than any other candidate for the Presidency.

These carry forwards are important, as it would allow Trump to minimize or even eliminate the taxes that he pays in future years. Again, this is perfectly legal, though Trump has been taking a hit over the past week nonetheless. The Clinton campaign has argued that Trump refuses to release his tax returns because it would likely show that he pays little to no income taxes. Trump, on the other hand, says that his returns are under audit and that he has been advised by his lawyers not to release them.

In addition, the Clinton campaign believes that Donald Trump is not nearly as charitable as he claims to be, and that the release of his tax returns would prove this.

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Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, released a statement earlier today in which he said that he has never used a carryforward in 72 years of filing income tax returns.

According to Buffett, his 2015 tax return shows adjusted gross income of $11.6 million. There were roughly $3.5 million in allowed charitable deductions, which lowered Buffett's effective federal income tax rate to 16%. Buffett paid roughly $1.9 million in federal income taxes last year.

Buffett said that his total charitable contributions for 2015 actually topped out at more than $2.85 billion, though that charitable contributions are capped at a percentage of adjusted gross income.

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Buffett, who is a supporter of Hillary Clinton, has lashed out at Trump multiple times over the course of this Presidential election campaign.

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Photo: Fortune Live Media

Filed under: General Knowledge

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