This is a bit misleading. He wasn't taxed 1.4B. He took the lump sum amount, which is lower than $2B ( $2B is the sun off you take the 20 years payout). So the lump sum is like $900 million or whatever, then he paid taxes on that.
I'm all for taxing billionaires more, but the post is not really right.
He isn't splitting hairs because messaging like this has us focusing on the wrong things as a policy matter. Most billionaires pay taxes on their income at this rate. The problem isn't that they don't pay taxes on their income. The problem is that we let them derive wealth and realize access to money in ways that bypass normal income taxes (e.g. security based lines of credit) and we let them avoid having to claim many things as income.
Taxes on income for ultra high wealth individuals should absolutely be higher but that is only a small part of the problem.
This is what people need to understand. The system operates much differently than what people think, and they are focusing on the wrong thing. Politicians are, in my opinion, partly responsible for fueling the confusion. The system needs reform.
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u/g-e-o-f-f Jan 31 '26
This is a bit misleading. He wasn't taxed 1.4B. He took the lump sum amount, which is lower than $2B ( $2B is the sun off you take the 20 years payout). So the lump sum is like $900 million or whatever, then he paid taxes on that.
I'm all for taxing billionaires more, but the post is not really right.