Leaked IRS Files: Billionaires Bezos, Musk, Bloomberg, Buffett Avoided Taxes as Wealth Soared

A major exposé by ProPublica has revealed how U.S. billionaires pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth, or sometimes even nothing. Private tax records of some of the country’s top billionaires show that between 2014 and 2018 the wealthiest 25 Americans saw their collective wealth jump by more than $400 billion, but they paid just over $13 billion in federal income taxes — amounting to a tax rate of just 3.4 percent. "Typical wage earners like you or me, we pay taxes every time we get a paycheck," says Jeff Ernsthausen, a senior data reporter at ProPublica. "But for the ultra-wealthy, it’s a completely different story."