From 2016 to 2018, The Great George Soros paid nothing in income taxes.  Jeff Bezos paid zero in 2007 and 2011; in 2011, his company, Amazon, recorded more than $48 billion in revenue.  Elon Musk, the second richest man in the world, paid no income taxes in 2018.

While we await word about the finances of the former president knowing that he paid the minimal amount for years, ProPublica has examined how the richest people in the United States have avoided paying taxes even as their wealth increases.  ProPublica used data and records of the files of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people to examine how they sidestep tax obligations–most time legally.

Using wealth data from Forbes, ProPublica found that while the wealthiest in the US got richer, their technical “income” minimized the amount of taxes they paid.  Based on its analysis, “According to Forbes, those 25 people saw their worth rise a collective $401 billion from 2014 to 2018. They paid a total of $13.6 billion in federal income taxes in those five years, the IRS data shows. That’s a staggering sum, but it amounts to a true tax rate of only 3.4%.”

Even advocates for higher taxes for the wealthy–people like Soros and Warren Buffett–benefited from ways to avoid tax burdens.  Buffett paid just 10¢ for every $100 of wealth increased from 2014 to 2018–a tax rate of less than 0.1%.

The primary driver for the disparity is the difference between what is considered “wealth” and what is considered “income.”  People can amass wealth without realizing any income.  Think of a high-valued painting like a Van Gogh:  the owner may have paid $10 million for it two decades ago, but today its value is $150 million, fifteen times the amount paid.  But there’s no income on it until (and unless) the owner sells it.

The wealthiest people can leverage those unsold investments into cash, however, by borrowing against their value.  Instead of selling their assets, they borrow using those things as collateral, and they use that borrowed money to gain more wealth–while potentially writing off any expenses associated with borrowing the money.

Mr. Soros, for his part, claimed net losses of wealth on he years he didn’t pay tax:  “Between 2016 and 2018 George Soros lost money on his investments, therefore he did not owe federal income taxes in those years. Mr. Soros has long supported higher taxes for wealthy Americans,” a representative said.