Topeka Capital Journal (KS) January 6, 2020
Bill Gates is
struggling to give away his billions.
Microsoft Corp.
co-founder Bill Gates started the last decade worth more than $50 billion and
with a pledge to donate large parts of his fortune to charity.
By the end of the
decade, he’d given billions of dollars to fight poverty and improve health care
and education. But his fortune also more than doubled during the period, a
result of soaring stock markets and favorable tax policies.
And so at the end
of the decade, the world’s second-richest person said he wants his fellow billionaires
to pay much higher taxes.
U.S. lawmakers
should close loopholes, raise the estate tax and hike the capital-gains tax so
that it equals the rate on labor income, Gates wrote Monday in a year-end blog
post. He also called for states and local governments to make their taxes
“fairer” and reiterated his support for a state income tax in Washington, where
he lives.
“I’ve been
disproportionately rewarded for the work I’ve done -- while many others who
work just as hard struggle to get by,” he wrote. “That’s why I’m for a tax
system in which, if you have more money, you pay a higher percentage in taxes.
And I think the rich should pay more than they currently do, and that includes
Melinda and me.”
Gates, 64, has a
net worth of $113.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a
ranking of the world’s 500 richest people. In 2010, Bill and Melinda announced
the Giving Pledge with Warren Buffett and asked other billionaires to sign to
give away chunks of their fortunes. As of May, 204 people from 23 countries
agreed to participate.
At an event in
November, Gates expressed reservations about the wealth tax proposed by
presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. In his blog post,
Gates said he won’t take a position on the various proposals being debated
during the campaign.
“But I believe we
can make our system fairer without sacrificing the incentive to innovate,” he
said. “Americans in the top 1% can afford to pay a lot more before they stop
going to work or creating jobs. In the 1970s, when Paul Allen and I were
starting Microsoft, marginal tax rates were almost twice the top rate today.
Ben Steverman,
Bloomberg News
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