zillion-heirs in for a buffett-ing

[dee-luded 2,959]

the Buffett rule applies ???

The Buffett rule gained that name, when the philanthropically inclined multi-billionaire US investor Warren Buffett, discovered he was paying less in income tax than the middle-income staff he employed.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/labor-to-slap-new-minimum-tax-rate-on-the-super-wealthy-20150724-gijnqq.html#ixzz3go15XaiO

Wealthy Australians earning above $300,000 per year could be hit with a new minimum income tax rate under a Shorten Labor government after the ALP agreed to consider implementing the so-called "Buffett rule" for the first time.

Mr Albanese told Labor's National Conference in Melbourne, that the Australian Taxation Office had found in 2011-12, that 75 Australians earning more than $1 million a year, had paid no tax at all.

He said the combined annual incomes of those millionaires was $195 million, but through elaborate accounting tricks, the super-rich 75 had been required to stump up just $82, in total.

"That's a disgrace in a nation where Tory governments are ravaging services with spending cuts and demanding higher regressive taxation through an increase in the GST," he said.

The idea of a minimum deduction has previously been floated by South Australian Labor Premier Jay Weatherill, who drew on modelling showing it could raise as much as $2.5 billion a year.

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What is the 'Buffett rule'?

• According to the White House, the "Buffett rule" is the "basic principle that no household making over $1 million annually should pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay".
• Named after US businessman and billionaire Warren Buffett, who famously stated that he shouldn't be paying a lower income tax rate than his secretary.
• Stemming from this principle, President Barack Obama proposed that no millionaire pay less than 30 per cent tax.
• In 2009, 22,000 US households making more than $1 million paid less than 15 per cent and 1470 paid no federal income tax at all. The average tax rate paid by high-income earners in the US is the lowest in 50 years.
• This tax minimisation is achieved through concessions and lower rates for income from investments.
• A Democratic Party attempt to pass the "Buffett rule" into law failed in Congress, opposed by Senate Republicans.
• The proposal appeared again in February this year, as part of Obama's budget plan, but faces even stiffer opposition as Republicans now control both houses of Congress.
• An April 2012 poll found 60 per cent support for the "Buffett rule" and 37 per cent opposition.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/labor-to-slap-new-minimum-tax-rate-on-the-super-wealthy-20150724-gijnqq.html#ixzz3go2lW4Tl