Are America’s Wealthiest Dodging Taxes?
A shocking new ProPublica analysis of American tax data reveals that the country’s 25 richest individuals are paying almost nothing in taxes. More at CBS.
Wealthy Americans can save a lot of money by cheating on their federal income taxes, but that’s nothing compared with how much money they’ve been saving by following the rules.
There is no evidence of illegality in the ProPublica story… ProPublica knows this, so its story tries to invent a scandal by calculating what it calls the “true tax rate” these fellows are paying. This is a phony construct that exists nowhere in the law…
The wealthy figures in the story would likely prefer that their taxes were not exposed, but this doesn’t damage them in any real way except for (possibly) slight embarrassment. However, ProPublica does show, in detail, why we should at least examine how taxes work for the rich. And that gives its investigation journalistic value.