Several of the world’s most prominent billionaires paid minimal to no federal income tax in some years, ProPublica reported on Tuesday, citing confidential IRS records it had reviewed.
The world’s wealthiest individual, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, did not pay any federal income tax in 2007 and 2011. Tesla CEO Elon Musk managed to do the same in 2018. Bloomberg founder Michael Bloomberg and investors Carl Icahn and George Soros were also shown to have paid minimal rates of federal income tax in recent years.
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Between 2014 and 2018, Warren Buffett’s wealth is reported to have risen by as much as $24.3 billion and he reported paying $23.7 million in taxes, according to the data ProPublica reviewed, a true tax rate of 0.1%.
ProPublica says the data were provided to the news organization after it published a series of articles examining the IRS. The news organization will not disclose how it obtained the data.
ProPublica says it reached out for comment to all individuals whose taxes it describes. Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg and Carl Icahn all told ProPublica they had paid the taxes they owed.
Michael Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg, the parent company of Bloomberg News.