Bill Gates thinks the super-wealthy should pay more tax – and plenty of rich people agree
Bill Gates thinks the super-wealthy should pay more tax – and plenty of rich people agree
Bill Gates told the World Economic Forum that countries, companies and individuals who have the most "should be pushed to be more generous."
Bill Gates wants ultra-wealthy individuals to pay more tax — and now a growing chorus of billionaires agree.
In his annual "Ask Me Anything" forum on Reddit last year, the Microsoft cofounder said he was "surprised" that taxes for the rich haven't been increased more.
Gates doubled down on his calls to tax the rich in a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. He said the wealthiest nations should donate more money to developing countries to help redress inequality.
"Those who have the most — whether it's countries, companies, or individuals — should be pushed to be more generous," he said.
It seems others agree, as more than 250 ultra-wealthy people signed an open letter calling for global leaders to impose a wealth tax.
How about backing up that letter with some lobbyists?
Yep, who cares what these billionaires say.
Other billionaires are spending tens or hundreds of millions on lobbyists to prevent tax.
If they want it to change, they need to pay some lobbyists too.
This is the correct answer
"I'm surprised the thing me and my ilk have been actively working against hasn't magically happened despite our massive efforts to the opposite effect."
Bet you Bill thinks these kinds of publicity stunts will exclude him from being eaten, when we go to eat the rich.
Just curious, how has he worked against it?
Irrelevant to this tax thing but Bill Gates still helping known patent trolls obtain more patents
Bill Gates is widely known for massive hypocrisy. And funneling his "Charity" money into vaccine companies he owns himself. And buying up an insane amount of farm land during Covid.
If Bill Gates says something you can bet that he's doing the exact opposite. There's a reason that this "charity man" somehow keeps getting richer.
Is he funding lobbyists to affect this kind of change? No.
Is he employing top tier accountants to make sure he doesn't pay his fair share like the poors? Betcha.
Does he funnel his wealth into charitable foundations that are a tax write off leading to him getting money rather than having to pay it, while it stays in an eco system he has full control over? Betcha.
Is he buying expensive art, property, etc. to incur expenses that are tax write offs? Betcha.Since I'm not a Billionaire, I won't be able to tell you all the ways that cunt is 100% pushing for a status quo while putting out fluff pieces like these that make him look good while doing literally nothing to affect the change he supposedly wants.
Wouldn't even be surprised if this was something to get out ahead of some revelations about tax evasion, so if you ever search up Bill Gates taxes, all you get is this curated nonsense of what a stand up good lad he is, trying oh so hard to pay his fair share. Why won't anyone take his money? Poor Bill. Must be hard not getting taxed and being utterly powerless to do anything about that. Shucks. Now he has to go another decade without ever coming close to paying his fair share.
Oh, also garbage takes like these, where he publicly opposed new tax plans - but it's fine, it was all cute and the audience laughed and he payed soooo much, sooo many taxes. https://youtu.be/dXxP4S_WwS0
He feels really safe saying these things while letting the wealthy elite in power do all the law-writing.
I've come to the right place if bill gates isn't cheered on by leftwingers.. Dude has such a sketchy past especially regarding intellectual property and market manipulation.
But "at least he doesn't support trump"
He probably is through some back-ass-channel. These kinds of assholes always play all colors, all cards and have backup plans. He still wants to cling to his little riches even if the political winds change again. Gotta be able to show receipts when that happens.
I'll never support a single Billionaire ever for any reason whatsoever. They're leeches and parasites to society, our species and planet.
Buy a few Republicans and let's make it happen, Billy Boy.
They're surprisingly cheap too
I wouldn't say "surprisingly."
Yup, the ruble doesn't go as far as it used to. In 1990, you could buy cheap helicopters because the russians were in dire need of cash infusion. In 2024 you can buy cheap politicians.
It should be noted that hardware from the cold war is cheap for a reason. And the helicopters aren't very good either.
He could do that with his pocket lint, and it’s what needs to happen
I'll be a Republican for this purpose. Buy me daddy Gates! Licks boot Make me your little Democrat!
People are right to point out that he should not simply cut a check to the government, instead he should lobby for higher wealth taxes like he lobbies for patents or voucher schools. Anything less is just free PR.
And cut a check.
QED: bringing MacKenzie Scott's total reported giving to more than $16 billion since 2019
I am a bag of meat and shit yet I can still recognize that is cutting a check.
Yeah I'm all for some much needed tax reform but on the flipside can you imagine what the current form of government would do with all the money from tax revenue? They would fuckin blow it and we'd be fucked all over again.
Says the guy that fought tooth and nail for MRNA vaccination patents to remain private. Yeah pay taxes but maybe don't make the money to begin with.
actions > words
I can't find anything on Google that says anything about this. Can you sauce please?
Says the guy who funnels his entire wealth through a foundation to avoid paying any taxes. Just like he told Epstein to do. Love you Bill
Dear Bill,
Would you be up for taxing charities owned by billionaires?
Sincerely yours
Charities are such an obvious money laundering scheme. "Philanthropy" my ass, it's always tax evasion, all of this is just for the gallery.
Source: https://ips-dc.org/report-true-cost-of-billionaire-philanthropy/?mc_cid=bfa8894a28
The point of a charity is the wealth is no longer owned by the donor, and it has to be used for one of a few purposes in the public interest. Depending on how the charity is incorporated, I believe some have minimums they must pay out.
Regardless, really?
So? You know that Bill can't really spend all his money so the extra wealth is used to influence policy on national and global scale. Charity is a perfect tool for that and Bill used his to influence American education policy for decades. The "it's not my money, I don't control it" is just PR and tax avoidance scheme.
yes really, instances of abuse of charities by b/millionaires for tax evasion and money laundering are far too common (including transfer of donations back to the donor by indirect ways) https://www.oecd.org/tax/exchange-of-tax-information/42232037.pdf
Where there is a way to abuse something for tax evasion billionaires will find a way
"i know you guys are upset at us fucking over all of you, but i assure you if you let us continue being petty tyrants with vast fortunes, we might give a marginally bigger sum of it back to the government, which will still spend it on whatever we tell it to anyway. win win!"
i don't want you to be more generous, i want you to be gone. if anyone proposed a plan that would actually affect them i doubt they would still support a wealth tax.
“Generous” is the noteworthy takeaway. Either ‘currency’ belongs to society and some people hoard it instead of circulating it, or ‘the world’ ‘belongs’ to a very select few people.
Imagine if a wealthy individual, who believes that the wealthy should be taxed more, actually used their wealth to take out TV commercials in all states/provinces advocating for the increase in taxes for the wealthy, actually trying to sway the political mindset in a big way with the power they have via their wealth.
Easier to just release a statement. That way you can be the "good guy billionaire" without actually having to pay up.
the problem is they don't want to sink their relative power.
I don't believe shit they say, if they say "go ahead and tax me" it's because they've got a way out so they won't have to, somehow.
That "somehow" is called using credit to buy everything then setting your stocks as collateral, and since debt can't be taxed well...
As it sits, yes, but ideally the wealth tax is based on asset valuation, not liquidity, which means that they would still be screwed. They are wealthy even if they carry enough debt to make it look like they are not on paper.
TL/DR; The super wealthy own the politicians so much they can tell them to do something that they will never do. Democracy is a fool's word.
What's the other word? There's a lot of details that are missed where we could have a better functioning democracy, not that it'll happen. But other words tend to be authoritarian, could be a bias. Anarchism will never count imo :)
We live in a perpetual state of anarchy. Nobody is beholden to the law or state, they're just imaginary rules that we all adhere to like kids in a playground. Everyone does what they do based on the everyday needs of life, we put food on the table simply because we need to put food on the table, we keep the lights on because we want them on. Even within so-called "states" are a messy web of allegiances and alliances, where nobody knows what anyone's doing and are also doing what they do based on their everyday needs. Realizing that everyone is an individual with their own needs, that cooperative projects are agreed upon works by the needs of the many, and that the "state" has nothing to do with that process, is proof that we live in a perpetual state of anarchy, society can be whatever WE want it to be, and the notion of a "state" in opposition to "anarchy" is just copium.
After he has already used a "charity" he created to tax shelter most of his money...
He has more money now than when he started giving “virtually all” of it away to (his) charity. This doesn’t stop rubes from using his fauxlanthropy as some kind of proof that not all billionaires are evil.
They can flap their lips all they want, I won't believe them til they lobby for it and it gets changed.
It'd be really cool if Gates and other not-so-evil megarich would just openly give a bag of money to every congressman to vote for more taxes to multimillionaires :)
He can say stuff like above, because he's already hidden most of his money inside a "charity" he conveniently controls...
Literally nothing is stopping any of them from cutting a massive check to the government. This is lip service to stop people from hating on the billionaire class.
Except the issue is systemic. You have a percentage of mega wealthy who simply don’t even pay their share. A few billionaires sending a large check to the government doesn’t fix anything. They could but until we change the way we handle taxes for the wealthy, we have a systemic problem we need to fix.
Speaking out that all the rich should pay more helps (maybe) make the case that those making hella bank should pay more.
Your statement is a bit of a straw man which doesn’t actually address the fact that the mega rich aren’t paying their fair share.
Except I wholeheartedly agree with you. There is a huge issue here, but at the same time if these billionaires truly believe that they should be paying more, they should just… do it. There is literally nothing stopping them. They should be forced to, yes, and that’s what they’re saying. But they should be putting their money where their mouths are in the meantime.
If you are cutting massive checks for the social good, private charitable organizations are typically better stewards of the money than the government. Unless you want the military to have more fighter jets, I suppose
If you think billionaires paying more taxes to governments will mean better lives for the poor then oh boy do I have a bridge to sell you.
No, obviously it takes those in government to have good intentions as well.
It means better lives for those poor executives of military contractors. Think of Lockheed-Martin's children!
Dear Bill,
the german government has a banking account where you can send them money, no questions asked. Feel free to send over your fair share of taxes you are avoiding by routing the Microsoft profits from Germany via Luxembourg and other tax havens.
Too late, compost these fuckers.
Oh, thank goodness the billionaires will save us from [checks notes] the billionaires.
But not him, he doesn’t have a lot of money. He donated all of it to charity which he is the founding member of and has an exclusive rights on using resources they have. Thus some money gets used yearly for charity, but significantly less than if it was taxed, the rest is kept for when he needs it. The most common way for rich to avoid taxation. So now every time you see some rich dude donating almost all of their wealth to charity… they are creating a banking institution without tax.
My nine year old: “My nails are sharp and they get stuck to my clothes”
Me: “You should cut them. Do you need any help?”
9 y.o.: “Please cut them even if I start crying”Sometimes people need their nails cut for them and you should be happy to oblige even if they start crying. Though I think Bill’s waning moment bribes are more convincing than offering to do chores.
Bill Gates should either shut his stupid fucking mouth or put his insanely exorbitant amount of money where that stupid fucking mouth is. Oh, he is a philanthropist and supports many causes and charities? No, he is an ultra wealthy individual who hordes his insane amount of wealth and has so much of it that he can casually drop seven plus figures in to any cause he wants, collect accolades from the public for it, and make that money back by the end of the fucking hour. Fuck bill gates
Not to mention he got a fake divorce from his wife for monetary purposes
Or that he wasnt even a struggling inventor like the stories have us believe, his mom was on the board for IBM ffs
I think he donated half his wealth and convinced other billionaires to do the same a few years back.
he makes money exponentially, that is meaningless to his total wealth
Okay then like do it, if you want to pay more money to the government then just fucking give it to them instead of fucking around with this dumb letter saying, "oh we promise we care about the peasan.... I mean poors.... I mean the financially disadvantaged"
I can't actually picture how easily someone would just send a larger check to the IRS - it'd probably be kicked back to you as a tax refund if you filled your taxes correctly.
Much easier would be to found your own charity to get similar effects done - which, surprise, Gates already does. And I'm sure he doesn't just mean "I should be paying more taxes", he means "Everyone as wealthy as me", even if said other people don't agree with him.
Don't worry, the US Treasury has directions:
It's super simple, you literally write a cheque and send it.
This is such a BS reply I see all the time. He does not want to give up his relative position. He wants folks at his position to pay their share. So he wants to retain a level playing field for competion for wealth but wealth should not come out of an ability to not pay taxes if you have the power to avoid it.
He does not want to give up his relative position.
What does that even mean? He can pay more taxes but only if he still gets to be #4 richest man on the planet? How about stopping the idiotic race to be "the richest person the universe" instead? You know that being #1 or #5000 doesn't really change how insanely comfortable your life is. The entire race and just pure vanity.
He wants folks at his position to pay their share.
Don't be silly. He doesn't want anyone to pay more. It's just PR.
If billionaires really wanted higher taxes, they'd have higher taxes.
What they want is no taxes and to look like their hands are tied "I can't possibly pay taxes they won't take my money! It's not my fault it's the government. Damn them!"
While they spend millions of dollars a year lobbying to get their taxes reduced even further and passed on to the working class.
There are some rich people who recognize that higher taxes are actually good for them in the long-term by increasing growth and decreasing income inequality (which in the long-term, leads to rolling heads). But it's a Prisoner's Dilemma style situation - if they, as individuals, donate additional wealth to the government, nothing happens except that their own wealth makes a tiny little drip in the ocean, and their competitors then benefit at no cost to themselves. But if the government imposes a uniform levy on them all, then the cost and the benefits are evenly applied, instead of one 'suffering' (and I use the term very loosely) and the others slightly benefiting.
My point here isn't to lionize them, because ultimately most of them are voicing this opinion out of personal interest, not morality. But it is probably a sincerely held personal interest, rather than pantomime.
Quoted by https://kbin.social/m/[email protected]/t/780024/-/comment/4717309, probably should search to find the actual source
No one is stopping you from giving money to the government.
You can make a gift to reduce public debt here: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/23779454
You can donate to the U.S. Government here: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/708094624
This is the same argument the other billionaires, politicians, and the media makes when arguing against Gates, Buffet, and Soros. I'm not saying Gates is a great person, but he's more or less right in this particular case. It's kinda like the "so, if you want the homeless to be housed, let them stay in your apartment," argument.
I don't disagree with his opinion, I just think he is a tremendous hypocrite.
Are they both tax deductible?
I don't have any idea.
Honestly donating to the national debt probably should be
If you're gonna tax dodge at least do it in a way that offers even a nominal benefit to the rest of us
I’m sure what they’re saying is that they want to give the government money but the government won’t let them.
Quit being disingenuous.
Disingenuous? He has billions of dollars stored in a 501(c)(3).
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code.
He's a fucking clown.
Genuinely hard to tell if a joke sometimes
For every one of him, there are probably thousands of neuvo riche and wannabe rich who say otherwise. It's an unfortunate truth.
The fox thinks that we need a stronger hen security doors installed and the weasels agree 👏
They always say shit like this then put all their money in charities or shell corporations overseas… this is just marketing. He could easily pay more taxes right now if he wanted to.
At this point I think they're just taunting us.
At this point? These fuckers openly taunt us since the dawn of Assyria lol
So does this mean a wealth tax that will actually hit the rich or simply increasing income taxes that will be avoided by the rich as usual?
Some of these people are so filthy rich they wouldn't even notice the missing money after their tax bill got paid. I'm pretty well convinced that they are just tax evading for sport.
It's not for sport, but it's by the same means anyone with even remotely complex assets gets tax advantages. You pay someone to manage your tax returns for you. You will naturally, by trial and error and recommendations from friends (and in the case of these billionaires, probably have accountants knocking on your door asking to do your returns for hefty fees), end up with the person (or organisation) who saves you the most money, because why wouldn't you?
Now, you're still liable for not paying tax you should've paid, but I don't think people are going out of their way to find tax loopholes. Accountants do that for them, and there is absolutely no incentive to find an accountant that's more "ethical" because, for that industry, it makes no sense to do anything other than get the most back for your clients.
You're right though. There would be no tangible impact to these people's lives, and it's for this reason they should all be supportive of increasing the tax they pay.
"should be pushed to be more generous"
Generosity my arse. Should be forced to pay their way. The rest of us cannot afford them.
You can voluntarily overpay taxes. Put your money where your mouth is Bill.
There are some rich people who recognize that higher taxes are actually good for them in the long-term by increasing growth and decreasing income inequality (which in the long-term, leads to rolling heads). But it's a Prisoner's Dilemma style situation - if they, as individuals, donate additional wealth to the government, nothing happens except that their own wealth makes a tiny little drip in the ocean, and their competitors then benefit at no cost to themselves. But if the government imposes a uniform levy on them all, then the cost and the benefits are evenly applied, instead of one 'suffering' (and I use the term very loosely) and the others slightly benefiting.
My point here isn't to lionize them, because ultimately most of them are voicing this opinion out of personal interest, not morality. But it is probably a sincerely held personal interest, rather than pantomime.
Honestly, if you have the option, it's a pretty simple choice - put it into a charity you know will help people or overpay taxes and watch the money be guzzled by the military.
I don't understand this comment. It's some psuedo-leftist aggression. How can you pay extra taxes? Just not file and get a return? I have filed my own taxes for 20 years and never seen "do you want to pay more?" Other than contributing to the Presidental fund. The only thing I can come up with is not filing after already paying. That's tax evasion.
You give a contribution to the Treasury Department under their Gifts to Reduce Debt Held by the Public program. In 2022, this amounted to just $180,310.32.
While you can argue that "that isn't taxes though!", it is essentially accomplishing the same thing but obviously not taxes because a donation isn't a 'tax'. With ~$180,000 from 2022, it is clear this is more bullshit than meaningful intent.
"if only someone would close the loop holes, but alack, they remain and the accountants force me to use them, what ever is to become of poor rich Bill"
Sad bit is, you don't even have to use loopholes. Certain forms of income that are more common amongst the wealthy are simply less taxed than regular income.
Yup, capital gains tops out at 15%.
Thats right Walmart workers, stock gambling is taxed less than your hard earned wages!
What would stop them from just funding housing, healthcare or education by themselves, if they want to contribute to society?
It's still a massive difference to taxes. Society should decide where the money goes, not the wealthy individuals themselves
That would put them behind those who wouldn't do it, if every rich person is forced to pay more taxes noone loses power
Bingo. They could do it themselves, but they want to spend other people's money, not just their own. Same as any other tax. Bonus PR points for appearing "generous".
Do you want an American Sengoku Warring States era? Because this is how you build an American Sengoku Warring States era. It would very rapidly devolve into multiple self-contained nations each lorded over by a different billionaire. They would each come with their own schools and housing and military. It would be the end of whatever United we still have left in our States.
TBF Bill Gates does.
I feel like these billionaires are afraid of the shitshow we call capitalism collapsing and they're willing to throw money at the problem so they can keep it going and stay in power.
And what he's willing to be taxed is a fraction of his hoard.
I'm not rich and I also agree.
Bill Gates asking us to tax his "wealth" while he hides most of it. This guy is the worst of the billionaires cause he pretends to be good. Also one of Epstein's buddies
But Epstein said he can get $1B for his charity. He could not refuse a meeting. Where else could Bill get a $1B? Oh, wait...
Take that money and talk and fund progressive politicians so we'll have systematic change.
This bullshit talk about paying more taxes is worthless.
Performative, these people could write checks directly to their countries tax collection agency any time they wanted. Old Bill there could send $500,000 a day for a hundred years and not miss it.
Yes I did the math, that would work out to only 18 Billion of his 121 Billion fortune!
See PugJesus’s reply below, plus mandating it would make it required
Just so long as it doesn't reduce their personal wealth, they're all for 'paying more taxes' as long as they can use the loophole of 'I created a charity in order to avoid paying my fair share of taxes'.
They might realize that increasing wealth inequality might not be good for them either on the long term. They are so rich that losing 99% of their wealth doesn't have any real impact on their day to day life anyway.
"That's why I pay people to lobby the government to cut taxes for the wealthy." -Bill Gates, probably
I wonder if those billionaires that agree do so because they feel that the time are changing and people are done with getting ripped off.
Plenty don't which is why you've got the best government money can buy.
Ah yes they'll be starting anytime now, soon.. Just wait...
They shouldn't pay less taxes if they don't exist in the first place
I'm not very smart but I do sense a catch here. If my 'suspicion' (if you can call it that) is right, could someone kindly explain it to me?
The catch is that if they pay taxes and life gets better for other people we agree to not bring out the torches, pitchforks, and guillotines or tar, feathers, and such
The torches, pitchforks, guillotine, tar, and feathers aren't going to reach a billionaire. They're going to be used on whoever is around.
You aren't getting within five miles of a billionaire. They don't play D&D and eat at McDonald's, bro. Sorry.
You are more likely to find yourself unfortunately headless than even getting the chance to hurt the feelings of a billionaire let alone their actual person.
We’re way past that point now. Too little, too late.
Ive been hearing Mark to Market get tossed around as a viable means to tax non liquid wealth, what I think is gonna be the big fight is how to tax items of subjective valuations like art pieces, or how even to establish a standard procedure of assessment that can't be fudged for tax purposes
You could start by paying your workers their fair value.
... Microsoft or the Gates Foundation?
I don't think either are wanting for salaries lol.
Bill Gates should something about inequality in his own country. He only helped enable the tech dystopia we live in today. Him and his family practically live on another planet insulated from their evil. Security guards, elaborate compounds, multiple properties, and they want to go around in sweaters pretending they know how hard people have it while only focusing on other countries' plights. In order to help developing countries they steal wealth from their own countrymen in order to have pet projects so we the people don't see there's nothing behind their eyes only malice and hatred for their fellow man.
k