Revisiting one of last summer's biggest financial stories: Warren Buffett's decision to donate $38 billion of his Berkshire Hathaway stock to charity, most of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
A fascinating aspect of this gift is that the folksy Buffett, usually a cold-eyed tax whiz, isn't being at all tax-efficient. … But Buffett isn't doing anything like that with his donations.
Here's why you should care: when you compare Buffett's current tax-inefficient behavior with Berkshire's tax efficiency, you can see the man's sincere about giving his wealth away because he thinks it's the right thing to do --not to get some hidden tax break.
I write frequently about people and corporations ducking taxes, but couldn't discern any tax dodging when I read the terms of Buffett's gift. …So to see if I'd missed something, I asked Buffett about his taxes. … Did I find a hidden tax agenda? Nope.
[Excerpt of an article by Allan Sloan, Newsweek]
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