Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is demanding a criminal investigation into the leaking of confidential tax information, insisting ...
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is demanding a criminal investigation into the leaking of confidential tax information, insisting that whoever was responsible be imprisoned.
He wants the Justice Department and FBI to investigate who released information about some of the country's wealthiest taxpayers including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffet.
'Our tax returns are, by law, confidential because of just this kind of shenanigans,' he told conservative host Hugh Hewitt's radio show.
'These people, ought to, whoever did this, ought to be hunted down and thrown into jail.'
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos paid no income tax in 2007 and 2011, while Tesla founder Elon Musk's income tax bill came to zero in 2018, according to IRS records obtained by ProPublica and published on Tuesday
In a letter with Sens. Chuck Grassley and Mike Crapo, McConnell said: 'It has become clear that bad actors are more than happy to weaponize Americans’ tax information for political purposes.' They demanded prison for the person responsible for the leak
The details were published in a ProPublica report describing how some of the country's wealthiest people paid little income tax.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos 's income tax bill was zero in 2007 and 2011, according to the non-profit investigative journalism organization.
Tesla founder Elon Musk’s also paid no income tax 2018 while financier George Soros went three years in a row without paying any federal income tax.
It cited an anonymous source 'who provided us with large amounts of information on the ultrawealthy, everything from the taxes they paid to the income they reported to the profits from their stock trades.'
McConnell, along with Sens. Chuck Grassley and Mike Crapo, announced Monday he had written to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Waray to demand those responsible be prosecuted and and jailed.
They wrote that tax filers are expected to disclose personal information and in return can expect that their information is treated confidentially.
'Paying one’s taxes is a civic duty, and that duty requires taxpayers to disclose to the IRS deeply personal financial information…' including where they live and work, how much they spend on healthcare and child care, and the size of retirement funds, they said.
'But those compelled disclosures should not, and do not, make that financial information public.'
Confidentiality is a vital step to preventing the information being used for illicit purposes,' they said.
'Th[e] rule of confidentiality is about more than just protecting individual privacy, although that is an important objective,' they wrote.
'The rule is a vital check against the use of the incredible power of federal taxation for nefarious political purposes.'
| Warren Buffett | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Total taxes paid | Total income reported |
| 2014 | $7.93 million | $46.8 million |
| 2015 | $1.85 million | $11.6 million |
| 2016 | $3.82 million | $19.6 million |
| 2017 | $4.75 million | $22 million |
| 2018 | $5.36 million | $24.8 million |
| Jeff Bezos | ||
| Year | Total taxes paid | Total income reported |
| 2014 | $85.4 million | $367 million |
| 2015 | $126 million | $542 million |
| 2016 | $320 million | $1.35 billion |
| 2017 | $398 million | $1.68 billion |
| 2018 | $43.5 million | $284 million |
| Elon Musk | ||
| Year | Total taxes paid | Total income reported |
| 2014 | $30.4 million | $165 million |
| 2015 | $78.5K | $3.15 million |
| 2016 | $42 million | $1.34 billion |
| 2017 | $73.7K | $6.22 million |
| 2018 | $8.41K | $3.85 million |
| Source: IRS DATA OBTAINED BY PROPUBLICA | ||
Details emerged, they continued, just before the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing to consider President Biden's proposed 2022 budget increases for the IRS.
'It has become clear that bad actors are more than happy to weaponize Americans’ tax information for political purposes,' they wrote.
'It is further clear that this wanton and criminal abuse of the tax system disproportionately—indeed, exclusively—advances the objectives of the political left in this country.'
They added: 'Ultimately, the only way to prevent these dangerous disclosures is to ensure that those who unlawfully disclose tax information go to jail.'
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig revealed last week that authorities had already launched an investigation.
'We have turned it over to the appropriate investigators, both external and internal,' he said during a previously scheduled Senate Finance Committee hearing.
The trove of data also showed how investor Carl Icahn did not pay federal tax in 2016 and 2017.
ProPublica calculated what it described as the 'true tax rate' for the billionaires based on the amount they paid from 2014 to 2018 compared how much Forbes estimated their wealth had grown during that period.
It found that the 25 richest Americans paid a lower rate than the average worker.
The median American household earned an average salary of about $70,000 and paid 14 percent in federal taxes per year.
In comparison, the richest 25 paid a true tax rate of 3.4 percent from 2014 to 2018 on wealth growth of $401 billion.
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