An unprecedented leak of the personal federal tax data of thousands of Americans has turbocharged a debate over wealth inequality in the United States and has tax reform advocates hopeful that a deeper public understanding of how the wealthy avoid taxes will lead to a restructuring of the U.S. tax code.
The data, leaked to the nonprofit journalism organization ProPublica, includes detailed information on the tax filings of thousands of the wealthiest individuals in the country and extends over more than 15 years.
This week, ProPublica used the data to give the nation its first detailed look at the extent to which the wealthiest in the United States are able to live lives of extraordinary privilege and luxury while simultaneously paying low rates of income tax or no income tax at all.
Among the findings is that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine, paid no federal income taxes in 2007 and 2011, and that other billionaires with household names — Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Carl Icahn and others — managed to pay very small amounts of taxes to the federal government, or none at all, even in years when their wealth grew by billions of dollars.
Income vs. wealth
It is important to note the…
