New York, NY, June 26, 2006--Warren Buffett on Monday called for lawmakers to retain the estate tax, after announcing plans to leave more than $37 billion of his own fortune to charity, not his children.
Buffett spoke after agreeing to sign over roughly $30.7 billion of his $44 billion fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, run by the Microsoft Corp., chairman and his wife, and another $6.4 billion to foundations on behalf of his late wife Susan and his children.
"I would hate to see the estate tax gutted," Buffett said at a Manhattan news conference with the Gateses about his donation.
"It's a very equitable tax," Buffett said. "It's in keeping with the idea of equality of opportunity in this country, not giving incredible head starts to certain people who were very selective about the womb from which they emerged."
Buffett, the second richest man in the world, after Bill Gates, spoke less than three weeks after the U.S. Senate fell three votes short of advancing a bill backed by President George W. Bush that would permanently repeal estate taxes.
Democratic opponents have argued that a full repeal would cost the U.S. Treasury about $1 trillion over the next decade, and principally benefit the ultra-rich. Permanently repealing estate taxes is a long-sought Republican goal.
Bush's 2001 tax cuts included a phase-out of estate taxes through 2009 and a total repeal in 2010 only. In 2011, the tax would be reimposed on estates valued over $1 million and the top tax rate would revert to 55 percent.
