Thank you for following up on this very important issue with us. Please feel free to go to our facts page under the War On Greed site, which includes articles and links to information about the loophole. Also, I found a specific article which might be of some help in further explaining this tax loophole. In it I found the following sentence which sums up a lot, stating:
'What this means in practice is that private-equity billionaires...essentially have a 15% tax rate, because all their income is treated as capital gains.'
Below is the link to the article which you can view in its entirety, as well as a link to our facts page. I hope that they will hopefully serve as additional information for you.
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit our website and view our work. We truly appreciate you providing us with your feedback and opinion on this matter.
We certainly do not deny that Henry Kravis has worked hard in his life. We also believe that others such as the foundrymen who pour iron at the Gunite plant in Rockford, Illinois (which is owned by KKR) work hard. And the maintenance worker at an Atria assisted living facility in New York City (which is owned by another private equity firm) who holds down a second full-time job to support his family works hard. Yet, unlike Kravis, these people do not receive a living wage.
Private equity partners, such as Henry Kravis, are handsomely rewarded for their work. As such, we expect them to contribute to the public good accordingly. As we highlight in our video, Kravis and others use complicated financial structures to game the tax code in order to pay a 15% tax rate on income that would otherwise be taxed at 35%. The average American worker makes under $50,000 per year and pays a 25% income tax rate. We expect Mr. Kravis, a man of great wealth and means, to contribute an equal if not greater percentage as those who have less to give.
We also do not deny that Henry Kravis has donated some of his money to good causes. He has donated to the Columbia Business School, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Metropolitan Opera, to name a few. Donations on Mr. Kravis’ behalf are generous, but overall represent a mere fraction of the amount of tax he avoids paying.
We hope that we can continue to be a source of information for you.
Hello David,
Thank you for following up on this very important issue with us. Please feel free to go to our facts page under the War On Greed site, which includes articles and links to information about the loophole. Also, I found a specific article which might be of some help in further explaining this tax loophole. In it I found the following sentence which sums up a lot, stating:
'What this means in practice is that private-equity billionaires...essentially have a 15% tax rate, because all their income is treated as capital gains.'
Below is the link to the article which you can view in its entirety, as well as a link to our facts page. I hope that they will hopefully serve as additional information for you.
http://www.felixsalmon.com/000780.html
http://warongreed.org/facts.php
Thanks!
Ofelia Yanez
Brave New Films