Don't call Warren Buffett a tax hypocrite

He's just doing what any good capitalist would do

Buffett
(Image credit: (Drew Angerer/Getty Images))

Warren Buffett — the Oracle of Omaha and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway — is best known as an entrepreneur and value investor, whose philosophy of identifying undervalued stocks and buying and holding them for years has made him the second richest person on the planet, and for a while last decade, the very richest.

But Buffett's forays into political arguments — specifically, calling for higher taxes on the wealthy and claiming he believes it's ridiculous that he pays a lower rate on his earnings than his secretary — have made him a controversial figure in some circles. In 2010, Buffett calculated that he paid just 17.4 percent of his income as tax, a significantly lower proportion than any of the 20 other people who work in his office.

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John Aziz is the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate editor at Pieria.co.uk. Previously his work has appeared on Business Insider, Zero Hedge, and Noahpinion.