Buffett: Against Bank Tax, for Higher 'Rich Guy' Taxes
Legendary investor says it doesn't make sense to tax banks.
OMAHA, Neb. <br/> Jan. 20, 2010 — -- Legendary investor Warren Buffett today came out against the Obama administration's plan to tax major banks to recoup losses from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Last week, the administration unveiled a plan to levy what the government calls a financial crisis responsibility fee on roughly 50 banks with assets of $50 billion or more. The goal is to raise at least $90 billion over the next 10 years. The tax is based on banks' size and their liabilities.
In an interview with ABC News at a special investors conference in his hometown of Omaha, Neb., today, Buffett said it was unnecessary to go after banks that had already repaid the loans they had received through TARP. The country's largest banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, have all repaid their TARP funds.
"I don't think it makes sense … The banks are not going to be the cause of big losses in the TARP program, maybe the auto companies will," Buffet said."It's a separate situation."
Buffett, the billionaire CEO of the investment company Berkshire Hathaway, also said he was against the British government's recently-announced tax on banker bonuses and calls for the U.S. to restrict bonuses.
Buffett, who made headlines in 2008 for investing billions in Goldman Sachs -- one of the institutions most heavily criticized for awarding bonus billions -- said restricting banker bonuses would only lead to better returns for bank shareholders and would not benefit the U.S. government, the country's unemployed or those who have lost their homes.
"It's sort of a false argument, saying if we would take away these bonuses, it would solve everything," he said. "There are lot of bonuses that aren't justified, make no mistake about that … It bothers me when people get paid a lot for not doing much but if they get paid for performing, I don't have a problem."
Still, as he's said before, Buffett supports levying higher taxes on high-earning individuals.
"I think higher earning people in this country should be taxed more," he said. "I don't think our tax system is very equitable and I think it's drifted dramatically during the last ten years toward favoring rich guys like me."
"I pay a lower tax rate on much of my income than my cleaning lady does," Buffett said, reiterating an example he's used over the years to illustrate his distaste for the current tax system. "I think that's crazy."
