Buffett stated that he only paid 19% of his income for 2006 ($48.1 million) in total federal taxes (due to their being from dividends & capital gains), while his employees paid 33% of theirs, despite making much less money.
[138] How can this be fair? Buffett asked, regarding how little he pays in taxes compared to his employees. "How can this be right?" He also added:
"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."
[139][140] Buffett favors the
inheritance tax, saying that repealing it would be like "choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold-medal winners in the
2000 Olympics".
[141] In 2007, Buffett testified before the Senate and urged them to preserve the estate tax so as to avoid a
plutocracy.
[142] Some critics have argued that Buffett (through Berkshire Hathaway) has a personal interest in the continuation of the estate tax, since Berkshire Hathaway has benefited from the estate tax in past business dealings and had developed and marketed insurance policies to protect policy holders against future estate tax payments.
[143] Buffett believes government should not be in the business of gambling, or legalizing casinos, calling it a tax on ignorance.
[144]
