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How Much is Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Back-Tax Bill Exactly? About $1 Billion

With Right-to-Work Being Protested in Michigan, Liberal Media Avoids the Other Side of the Story

Union thugs: “I’ll kill the motherf*cker with a gun!” Violent left…what’s new?

 

Why can't Buffet pay the taxes that he already owes?

 

Original Source:

(http://www.theblaze.com/stories/how-much-is-buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-back-tax-bill-exactly-about-1-billion/)

by Tiffany Gabbay

excerpt:

According to Berkshire’s 2010 annual report, the company has been in a near decade-long struggle with the IRS over its own taxes. Using public documents, a certified public accountant detailed Berkshire’s tax problems to Americans for Limited Government researcher Richard McCarty, revealing the damage could be close to $1 billion. Netright Daily adds:

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.”

$1 billion is not an insignificant chunk of change, even for Buffett, representing about 0.2 percent of the company’s $372 billion in total assets.

.
The annual report goes on to state: “We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments proposed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (‘IRS’) for the 2002 through 2004 tax years at the IRS Appeals Division within the next 12 months. The IRS has completed its examination of our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2005 and 2006 tax years and the proposed adjustments are currently being reviewed by the IRS Appeals Division process. The IRS is currently auditing our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2007 through 2009 tax years.”

Meanwhile, McCarty believes Berkshire’s current issues may be consistent with the company’s long-time history regarding taxes, noting, “this is not the first time that Berkshire Hathaway has tangled with the IRS.”

“They fought a 14-year battle over the dividends received deduction. That case was just resolved in 2005,” McCarty said.

Before knowing just how much Buffett’s company owed, the press were quick to blast the mogul for his apparent hypocrisy.

On Monday the New York Post reported:

Obvious question: If Buffett really thinks he and his “mega-rich friends” should pay higher taxes, why doesn’t his firm fork over what it already owes under current rates?

Likely answer: He cares more about shilling for President Obama — who’s practically made socking “millionaires and billionaires” his re-election theme song — than about kicking in more himself.

While the site Mogulite jumped into the fray:

Ironic, isn’t it? When Warren Buffett penned that op-ed demanding he be taxed more, we assumed that meant he had actually paid his taxes. Not quite the case. Buffett’s famed company, Berkshire Hathaway, owes taxes that are nearly a decade old.

[...] They promise they’ll work it out with the IRS within the next year. Can’t Buffett just take a little out of his piggybank and pay up? For a man who so actively preaches honesty and integrity, we’re a little baffled as to why Berkshire won’t just fork over what it owes.

If the press came down hard on Buffett before — for merely learning his company owed back taxes at all — one can only imagine how the tycoon might be disparaged now that we’ve learned just how much his company could owe the IRS.

 

Original Source:

(http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ryan-robertson/2012/12/11/right-work-being-protested-michigan-liberal-media-avoids-reporting-o)

By Ryan Robertson

Right-to-work legislation has passed in Michigan, despite the vociferous protests of bused-in union protesters in Lansing and sympathetic coverage from the liberal media, who have portrayed right-to-work as a blow to "union rights" as well as a "politically unnecessary" and "divisive" move by Republicans who control the state legislature and governor's mansion in a state that went strongly for Obama last month.

But there is another side of the story, which the liberal media outlets are seemingly ignoring. The Michigan-based conservative think tank called the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has not only published persuasive and thoroughly-researched reports advocating for the right-to-work policy, they are doing their best to inform the public with the facts and figures that the majority of the media refuses to acknowledge, much less verify.

For example, Mackinac has reported on how the public employees union SEIU has skimmed off the dues from its ailing and disabled clients' Medicaid subsidy checks to the tune of $33 million since 2006. The vast majority of which has been used solely for political advocacy.

Gov. Rick Snyder and his attorney general Bill Schuette tried to put a stop to it by signing a bill into law earlier this year, but the SEIU has reportedly continued to do so, according to the skimTracker. When it takes effect, the right-to-work bill will finally allow members to withdraw from the union on the grounds of its ongoing improprieties.

Mackinac has complemented these findings with human interest stories, spotlighting some of the families who have endured financial difficulty as a result of forced unionization and their subsequent excesses. The Glossops are just one example of many, but they're only one of a couple being represented by the Mackinac Center's Legal Foundation in a case against the SEIU over unfair labor practices. This is (part of) their story:

Steven Glossop moved back in with his mom Linda four years ago after she had a stroke when she was recovering from heart surgery. She needed constant care and he knew he would provide it. When he has to run errands or go to work, he arranges for someone -- often his wife -- to stay with his mother. To the Service Employees International Union, the Glossops are just another chance to make a buck [...] The Glossops, by virtue of getting Medicaid money from the state, are now members of the SEIU thanks to a unionization scheme orchestrated in 2005 when Jennifer Granholm was governor.

Liberal media outlets like MSNBC have primarily allowed opponents of the law to state their case, while giving short shrift to right-to-work supporters and their own arguments. Even as its sister network, CNBC shows that Michigan is 33rd out of 50 on the "best states for business list." By contrast, nine of the top 10 states on the list have already adopted right-to-work laws. In a sluggish economy, that speaks volumes.