Some of the world’s richest males — Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, Michael Bloomberg and George Soros — pay only a tiny fraction of their rising wealth in taxes, and in some instances pay no taxes in a given yr, according to a report Tuesday.

ProPublica, citing confidential IRS data it obtained on thousands of wealthy people, reported that the 25 richest Americans “noticed their value rise a collective $401 billion from 2014 to 2018.”

But these folks paid a complete of simply $13.6 billion in federal income taxes for these 5 years, which “quantities to a real tax price of solely 3.4%,” the article famous.

In distinction, the median U.S. family in current years earned round $70,000 yearly and paid 14% of that in federal taxes. Couples in the very best income tax price bracket paid a price of 37% on earnings greater than $628,300, the report mentioned.

ProPublica identified that billionaires, in contrast to most different folks whose earnings come from typical wage income, typically profit from “tax-avoidance methods past the attain of abnormal folks.”

And their wealth is commonly largely primarily based on the rising worth of inventory and actual property that’s not thought of taxable except these belongings are offered, the report famous.

The article mentioned that in accordance with ProPublica’s calculations, Buffett’s “true tax price” was simply 0.1%, or $23.7 million in taxes he paid on wealth progress of $24.Three billion, in the course of the five-year time-frame.

During that interval, Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, reported legally taxable income of $125 million.

Bezos, who as founder of Amazon has develop into the world’s richest particular person, paid barely lower than 1% in ProPublica’s true tax price, or $973 million, on wealth progress of $99 billion in the course of the five-year interval. Bezos’ precise taxable income throughout that point was $4.22 billion, the report mentioned.

In 2007, Bezos “didn’t pay a penny in federal income taxes,” and he additionally averted any federal income tax legal responsibility in 2011, the article mentioned.

The world’s second-richest particular person, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, paid a 3.27% true tax price, or $455 million, on wealth progress of $13.9 billion, ProPublica mentioned.

Musk, who had an precise taxable income of $1.52 billion in the course of the five-year interval, paid no federal income taxes in 2018, in accordance with ProPublica.

Bloomberg, former New York City mayor and founder of Bloomberg LP, paid a 1.3% true tax price, or $292 million, in the course of the time interval checked out by ProPublica. His precise taxable income was $10 billion, the report mentioned.

Soros, an investor, paid no federal income taxes between 2016 and 2018, which was a consequence of him shedding cash on his investments, his spokesman informed ProPublica.

Icahn, one other investor, paid no federal income tax in 2016 and 2017, years in which his whole adjusted gross income was $544 million, the article mentioned.

Icahn informed ProPublica that he registered tax losses in each of these years consequently of taking deductions value a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} as a result of curiosity he paid on loans.

Asked whether or not it was applicable that he had paid no income tax in sure years, Icahn mentioned he was perplexed by the query, ProPublica reported.

“There’s a cause it is referred to as income tax,” Icahn was quoted as saying in the article. “The cause is that if, in the event you’re a poor particular person, a wealthy particular person, if you’re Apple — when you have no income, you do not pay taxes.”

He added: “Do you suppose a wealthy particular person ought to pay taxes it doesn’t matter what? I do not suppose it is germane. How are you able to ask me that query?”

Read the full ProPublica report here.