Associated Press
Buffett Opposes Eliminating Dividends Tax
Sunday May 4, 9:07 pm ET
By Joe Ruff, Associated Press Writer
Billionaire Investor Warren Buffett Opposes Eliminating Tax on
Corporate Dividends
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Sunday
that President Bush's proposed tax cut on corporate dividends would be
unfair and fail to deliver a boost to the economy.
Bush wants to eliminate the tax on corporate dividends as a key to his
10-year, $726 billion tax cut plan. But the plan received a cool
reception from Buffett at the annual shareholders meeting of Berkshire
Hathaway.
Buffett said the tax plan is not fair because it favors the wealthy,
and he questioned the economic benefits.
"The idea that it creates all kinds of jobs and everything else,
that's what sort of turns me off," Buffett said. "That's like a
manager saying we're going to grow our earnings 20 percent a year.
They don't have the faintest idea, in my view, of how many jobs this
is going to create. How could they? Economics is not that precise."
Berkshire vice chairman Charlie Munger also spoke strongly against
eliminating the corporate dividend tax.
Reasonable people can disagree on whether Bush's plan would help
stimulate the economy, Munger said. But it cannot be made so unfair
that people resent it, he said.
"I don't think you can make it so unfair that a man living entirely on
dividends will pay zero tax while a cab driver has to work 16 hours a
day to barely feed a family," Munger said. "I just don't think it
works in a democracy." |
