Wanna bet that his secretary has a *higher* EFFECTIVE... INCOME TAX rate than that?
Its possible, but only if the secretary is highly compensated (which is likely so, as the executive assistant to a major CEO), and at the same time doesn't take have a large number of tax breaks. Most secretaries do not pay that much as their effective income tax rate. As I said before - "most secretaries don't make 6 figures, and most people who do make six figures have plenty of deductions and credits."
As for nominal, if you mean the nominal top marginal rate, then sure, the secretary has a higher tax rate, but if your arguing the issue in the sense of what's fair (rather than in terms of incentives) it would seem the actual percentage paid is more important.
If it is the case that Buffet is particularly good at lowering his effective tax rate (at least if you ignore the taxes paid by the companies he is a major owner of), and his secretary is bad (or at least not unusually good) at avoiding taxes (and also unusually highly compensated), then perhaps Buffet does pay a higher effective tax rate (without documentation from both of them we can't be sure), but if so that's a big step from the norm. Whether you just consider income taxes, or count all federal taxes, the rich pay a lot more (as a percentage, not just in dollar terms) than the non-rich, and while the "uber-rich" may pay less (as a percentage, but not in dollar terms) than the rich, they pay more than the norm. |
