Warren 'Raise My Taxes' Buffett's Company May Owe IRS $1 Billion
By Noel Sheppard | August 30, 2011 | 17:29
As NewsBusters reported Monday, American media almost completely ignored a report that Warren "Raise My Taxes" Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway has been fighting with the IRS for almost a decade over taxes it owes.
On Tuesday, the organization digging into Berkshire Hathaway's numbers, Americans for Limited Government, estimated the total could be as much as $1 billion:
Using only publicly-available documents, a certified public accountant (CPA) detailed Berkshire Hathaway’s tax problems to ALG researcher Richard McCarty. Now, the American people have a better idea of how much in back taxes the company could owe Uncle Sam.
According to page 56 of the company report, “At December 31, 2010… net unrecognized tax benefits were $1,005 million”, or about $1 billion. McCarty explained, “Unrecognized tax benefits represent the company’s potential future obligation to the IRS and other taxing authorities. They have to be recorded in the company’s financial statements.”
He added, “The notation means that Berkshire Hathaway’s own auditors have probably said that $1 billion is more likely than not owed to the government.”
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Comments
Pay your taxes, deadbeat!
Submitted by drsamherman on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 5:35pm.
Looks like the Oracle of Omaha has laryngitis from arguing with the IRS.
If the company's independent auditors make you put the liability on the books, it means they see you owe the taxes and make you disclose the liability.
I wonder if he will change his name from Warren to Dodgin'.
WARREN BABY-
Submitted by JIMMY1660 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 5:38pm.
shared sacrifice-you are the reason America is in trouble.
you are a bum-a liar and a thief.
Of course he would
Submitted by RD King on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 5:40pm.
He's a lib and libsducsic. Oh yea and don't pay taxes.
Timmy didn't pay, so why should Buffet?
Submitted by neutron on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 8:22pm.
Little Timmy GhiteNear didn't pay his income taxes while at The World Bank, and O'Bambi wanted him at Treasury, it was No Biggie!
The LibTard media will crow to the roof about the Buffet line that he wants to pay more taxes, all the while knowing that Berkshire Hathaway and the Buffet-meister will never pay their taxes either.
It's still 1984 in the libtard echo chamber.
Not a surprise
Submitted by desert3030 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 5:42pm.
Ever notice,.....He , "They" POTUS, has this knack about hanging with and promoting the efforts of tax cheats? Then he demands a shared scarifice,...only from others. Ooopps he gave up half a days vacation (raining and couldn't play golf and wasn't staying home witht he wife and kids!), and TOOK CHARGE of relief efforts.
Just another ...
Submitted by Bodini on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 5:44pm.
DO AS I SAY, not as I do Marxist Democrat PIG!
No Butt-Boy Buffet was
Submitted by jdhawk on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 6:06pm.
Now I know why Butt-Boy Buffet was appointed to get wealthy donors together for dinner at tens of thousands a pop. I mean you get to hob-knob with the likes of O'bummer and get the inside track on how to avoid paying your taxes! Its sleeze two-fer extravaganza!
Meanwhile, guess who is likely to be appointed Secretary of the Treasure when Turbo Tax Geithner goes the way of the rest of O'bozo's economic advisers? My money is on Butt-Boy Buffet. I am just going by the fact that O'dufus seems to have used tax dodging as a criteria for office!
Jeez - why can't we just go ahead and hold the election a year early and get this ninecompoop outa office?
Pay already
Submitted by shferg on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 6:13pm.
If you're so committed to paying more taxes, as you so loudly proclaim in the media, there is no reason to fight this. No reason to pay your CPAs. Simply pay already and have a good day.
I really want to unleash a tirade of insults but I'm going to refrain. This just annoys me so much.
$1 billion? Pfft. That's only 10,000 shares of BRK-A.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 6:25pm.
Cough it up, you old piker.
from one Buffett to another
Submitted by kata on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 6:42pm.
Talk is cheap
It takes money to buy your freedom
And the tax man's knockin' on your door.
Oh Mr. Buffett...
Submitted by shooter on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 6:52pm.
You are such a hypocrite.
But then, most liberals are, right?
_________________________________________
"An armed society is a polite society" -- Robert A. Heinlein
Buffet has absolutely nothing to worry about
Submitted by Dave. on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 6:56pm.
Like I have always said, as long as you have that all-important "D" after your name, or are helping to bankroll same, and as long as you keep your trap shut and continue to carry the water for the left, you can get away with just about anything.
-Dave
Disgraceful!!
Submitted by Bourbeau on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 7:19pm.
That old fart should be ashamed of himself. CNBC has giving him a soap box to spew his nonsense and not once has any of their reporters asked him about his company's prior year taxes. This is the same jackass who steps up and invests $5 billion dollares in Bank of America inferring average investors should buy into BofA. Spare me moron; I'm an average investor and I won't get anything close to the ass kissing deal you got, as you also pulled in from GE and Goldman Sachs. Warren Buffet is a greedy old bastard, using his notoriety to lecture others about what they should do, while he's in the back room cutting his own deals and stiffing the American taxpayer.
Or as Chuck Munger says
Submitted by Vonu on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 8:40pm.
Just suck it
Ad Nauseum...
Submitted by Chris Norman on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 8:49pm.
The equivalent of Al Gore flying in a private jet to deliver a speech telling the rest of us that we must "reduce our carbon footprints". The equivalent of Thomas Friedman sitting in his mega-estate writing that the rest of us must learn to live smaller. The equivalent of...
You can't make this stuff up
Submitted by GerryC on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:20pm.
Over 20,000 pages of income tax laws and this liberal collide. Result: The liberal fights like everyone else. Liberals believe that unless they are affected, every tax law is good.
My best friend in high school is a plumber. He has defrauded the gov't by taking cash payments and not paying his taxes. He has been in and out of lawsuits his whole life. He is the "perfect liberal" demanding taxes on everyone but himself.
It is sorry, but he is no longer on my radar. I can't stand liberals that brag about how only "they" can avoid taxes, while the rest of us don't understand the rules and must pay more than them.
Me either
Submitted by Boudin on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:36pm.
I work in a highly regulated field. We are opportunity! But we are so afraid to be winners, we lose : [
My reins are so tight, I fear I may have to quit!
I am a craftsman and Millwright. Some think the best?
Well Buffer ask and you shall receive...
Submitted by gmaniac1 on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 1:24am.
and also you reap what you sow.
All these elitist rich libs want is to turn off the faucet on free market development so that people cannot advance themselves and take from their piece of the pie. There's no other way to explain it. They totally used the free market to become wealthy but now are somehow indignant towards others who choose to exercise their personal liberties.
Nothing new here
Submitted by KC Beach on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 6:57am.
Kansas City, Kansas has been getting shafted by Buffet and NE Furniture Mart for years. Like the story says, if you dispute property taxes by law you must pay what is owed and fight in court. That is exactly what I had to do, and after winning I had to wait for the refund. But my dispute was only about thousands of dollars. It appears that if you owe millions, you can ignore the law.
http://www.kmbc.com/news/20056559/detail.html
buffet
Submitted by D'saredumbpeople on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 8:45am.
B.O. told him not to worry......