I must have brought it in with me.
"As some rich urge higher taxes, donations to Treasury fall" May 06, 2012|By Callum Borchers
They
come from all types of people, mostly of modest means - unsolicited and
sometimes anonymous checks to the US Treasury meant to help Uncle Sam
stay out of the poorhouse.
“I saw one just last week with a note
from an 86-year-old World War II vet that was so sweet,’’ said Joyce
Harris, the director of public and legislative affairs at the Treasury’s
Bureau of Public Debt. “He said, ‘I don’t have a lot of time left on
this earth, but this country’s been good to me, and I want to give some
money somewhere good.’ ’’
Related: There Truly is a Sucker Born Every Day
The
elderly veteran’s gift was just under $1,300. But the number of gifts
like his have plummeted in recent years, and some people who could spare
much more, including a group of wealthy Americans who said they would
gladly pay higher taxes under the “Buffett Rule,’’ say they will not
contribute.
Critics of rich Buffett Rule supporters say it is
hypocritical for them to say they are willing to pay more taxes if they
do not donate to the government.
“It shows the phoniness of their
position,’’ said John G. Carberry, the vice president of Oppenheimer
Multifamily Housing and Healthcare Finance. “They’re disingenuous to say
they want to pay more.’’
But Charlie Fink, a former AOL executive
and a leading member of the pro-Buffett Rule group Patriotic
Millionaires for Fiscal Strength, argues that it is unreasonable to
expect hordes of high earners to pay what amounts to voluntary taxes.
“I
hear this question from people all the time: ‘Why don’t you just write a
check to the government?’ ’’ Fink said. “It’s glib, and they don’t like
the answer, which is the whole point of taxes is everybody pays.’’
The
average contribution to a gift account designated for repaying the
public debt is about $100, and almost every donation is less than
$1,000, according to Harris. The Treasury has two other, similar
accounts: the nonearmarked Gifts to the United States and the
“Conscience Fund,’’ which accepts money from people who feel compelled
to reconcile unpunished fraud.
From 2006 to 2008, contributions to
the three accounts averaged $22.2 million and were never lower than
$13.6 million. From 2009 to 2011, annual gifts averaged $6.6 million and
never exceeded $7.1 million.
The Buffett Rule - named for
billionaire Warren Buffett, one of the measure’s most vocal proponents -
would have generated additional revenue by requiring people who earn
more than $1 million per year to pay effective federal tax rates of at
least 30 percent. Because capital gains on investments, a major source
of income for many affluent people, are taxed at just 15 percent, it is
possible for high earners to pay lower effective rates than members of
the middle class.
Fink
acknowledged “a bit of political theater’’ in the Buffett Rule push.
President Obama for a week in April made the proposed rule a campaign
focal point. The president made the pitch even though opposition by
Republicans, including likely presidential nominee Mitt Romney, made the
bill’s demise on a procedural vote in the Senate a foregone conclusion.
“These
millionaires knew the Buffett Rule wasn’t going to pass, so they
figured why not throw it out and say, ‘Sure, I’ll pay more?’ ’’ said
John G. Baffo, a Boston accountant.
Fink
insists that although the Patriotic Millionaires knew the true
possibility of a tax increase was remote, their endorsement of the
Buffett Rule was sincere.
“If I felt that writing a check would
make a difference, I’d gladly do it,’’ Fink said. “It’s like being in a
full lifeboat where six guys have oars. There’s no land in sight, and
they don’t know which way to go, so five of them don’t row. If only one
decides to paddle, how far are they going to get?’’
Treasury
records suggest philanthropy has its limits. Even at their all-time high
of $37.2 million in 2006, the Treasury’s gift accounts never approached
the projected revenue of the Buffett Rule - an average of $4.7 billion
per year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Romney
pointed out on the day of the Senate vote that a year’s worth of Buffett
Rule revenue would cover only 11 hours of federal government expenses.
The Treasury’s gift accounts would pay for about five minutes.
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Something stinks.
