Warren Buffett’s Urgent Alert: Brace Yourself for a Tax Hike

Warren Buffett, the billionaire and Oracle of Omaha, said that Washington would likely “take a greater percentage of what we have, and we will pay it” because they had to cut spending or take a bigger share of our assets. You know what Washington thinks about spending cuts.

He warned investors that higher taxes were likely at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday. “[Washington] might decide one day that they don’t like the fiscal deficit being this high because it has important consequences.”

“They may not want to reduce spending, so they might decide to take a higher percentage of our assets and we will pay them.”

Joe Biden, the president, has also made a similar promise, saying that if he is re-elected in November, he will not push for an extension of Trump’s tax cuts. David Winston reported for Roll Call that Biden had told electrical union employees in April that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would expire in 2025. It’s going to expire and if reelected, it will stay expired.

House Ways and Means Committee Republicans claim that if Congress does not extend the Trump tax cuts, an average American four-person family earning $75,000 would be hit with a tax increase of $1,500. Main Street businesses will be taxed at a rate of 43.4 percent, and working parents will see their Child Tax Credit cut in half.

Remember Biden’s promise that he would not raise taxes for anyone earning less than $400,000. You could pay the tax hikes that Biden promised you would not be receiving if you had $1 for each time he broke his promise.

Sir Keith Joseph, Margaret Thatcher’s mentor, called this “the ratchet” effect in action. Leftists increase government spending and control to the maximum extent possible when they take over. When conservatives return to power, they can do little more than freeze the state of affairs as leftists left them. Biden has abused the system like few others. He passed massive spending bills after massive spending bills and imposed massive regulatory schemes after massive regulatory schemes on the economy.

The Wall Street Journal published a report in April.

Recent data shows that the IRS continues to focus on the middle class. In the summer of 2013, 63% of all new audits were directed at taxpayers earning less than $200,000. The audits of the highest earners were a very small percentage. 80% of the audits targeted taxpayers earning less than $1,000,000.

Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act” included an extra $80 billion for the IRS budget, so that these new agents could concentrate their audits on those who are “rich.” The WSJ article said, “The IRS has been slow in shifting its focus towards high-income tax filers, who only make up a small percentage of the total filings.” The IRS has better accountants for the rich than they do for the middle class. The IRS knows which chickens should be plucked.

All these stories lead to one conclusion. Ignore Buffett’s warning about tax increases “likely” to come. They’re already here, or soon will be, in the form of inflation and increased audits of the middle class.