Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, author of the Buffett Rule that would raise income taxes on the wealth, also believes in raising capital gains taxes to raise revenue from other income streams.
“Yeah, I would be in favor of that,” Buffett said last night at the Economic Club of Washington when asked about a capital gains tax increase. The 15 percent capital gains tax helps Buffett — whose marginal income tax rate clocks in at about 35 percent — to pay an effective tax rate of 17.4 percent. “That’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office,” Buffett wrote in a New York Times op-ed last year.
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That anecdote prompted President Obama to call for a 30 percent tax on millionaires. “You’ve heard that my friend Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary — because he’s the one who’se been pointing out that and saying we should fix it,” Obama said in an April speech.
Buffett indicated that he would not pay his secretary in the capital gains income that would lower her effective tax rate under current law. “She’s been suggesting that lately,” he laughed. “She’s always on the phone with some tax advisor now.”
Although he agreed that he’s a “liberal Democrat,” Buffett said he likes some Republicans. “I support certain Republicans and, actually, this year I gave some money to a Republican congressman,” Buffett said.
