June 09, 2021

Anna Murray 

On June 8, ProPublica, a nonprofit organization based in New York City that publishes investigative journalism in the public interest, released its latest report on the tax status of the richest 25 Americans. From 2014 to 2018, Musk and Michael Bloomberg paid 3.27 percent and 1.3 percent in taxes, respectively, according to ProPublica.

Three journalists, Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen, and Paul Kiel, published a daring report titled "The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax." From 2014 to 2018, the top 25 wealthiest Americans paid an average of 16% in federal income taxes, including Medicare and Social Security, according to the authors. In comparison, a working person earning US$ 45,000 per year may be required to pay the same taxes at the same rate.

For example, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, a multibillionaire at the time and now the world's richest man, owed no federal income taxes between 2007 and 2011. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and the world's second richest man, paid no federal income taxes in 2018. Michael Bloomberg has done the same in recent years. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn did it twice. George Soros avoided paying federal income taxes for three years in a row.

The authors conducted their new analysis of a collection of Internal Revenue Service documents while concealing the provider's identity, according to the ProPublica investigation. Nonetheless, ProPublica revealed that the richest 25 Americans pay a true tax rate of virtually nothing and have done nothing illegal.

Photo:webshot.