A story on the newswires today said that Bill Gates said in Lisbon that his wealth is so great that the IRS requires a special computer to deal with it. See, for example, this link. At first I thought the story was faked, but then while watching the evening news I just saw video of him making the statement.
Does this sound believable to anyone? It doesn’t to me. For one thing, his net worth is 47 billion dollars or whatever, but much of that is unrealized capital gains. I think his actual income each year is less than a billion dollars, in the same range as some other business executives.
I’m also wondering if he was kidding. It seems like such an obnoxious, boastful thing to say.
Anyway, BG was surely joking. I have no doubt as to the fact that his taxes are complicated, but the idea that the IRS needs a “special” computer to do them is… well, a joke.
Maybe the IRS doesn’t trust Gates. What if their “normal” MS-Windows running PCs had a secret chunk of code that noted when the SSN was Gates’ and dropped his taxes owed down a few million?
While surely not true, OTOH I wouldn’t put it past Gates.
Well, here is a Forbes article about Gates and his taxes, where BG says their antiquated systems from the 1960s can’t handle his data, and he keeps getting nasty letters every year.
However, the article does not say what software the special computer runs. Perhaps Gates offered to help them out with a special edition of Windows NTFM* running Microsoft Money: the Bill Gates Really Accurate, No Really, Trust Me IRS version.
I’m not too sure what the deal is - with the complexity of Gates’ return, there is no surprise that he “constantly” receives IRS notices. I’m sure that Warren Buffet’s return has the same sort of issues. And Larry Ellison, and Donald Trump, and etc.
And I’m still a little doubtful as to the complete accuracy of Gates’ statement - has the IRS itself confirmed that it has a “special computer” just for his taxes alone? As far as I can tell, the article is based upon Gates’ word. The fact that the IRS doesn’t run Windows is irrelevant as, again, they’re the ones who call the shots and tell people in what manner and in what format to submit their returns.
Sorry… but I call BS. At the very most, Gates probably insisted that his return be kept on a computer that isn’t on the main network (for security reasons) or something, but the idea his returns can’t be filed on the same computers that can handle everything from my personal taxes to Warren Buffets return to the quarterly payments and returns submitted by, well, every freakin’ corporation that does business in America is… hooey.
Yeah… they can’t do Gates’ taxes, but they can do everybody else’s. :rolleyes:
It didn’t sound right to me either. And as I said, his net worth is 47 billion or whatever, but mostly that doesn’t affect his income.
I found an article that said that in 2001, Larry Ellison sold 29 million shares of Oracle in 2001, resulting in a 900 million dollar capital gain, which, the article claimed, was the highest corporate payday ever. So whatever problem the IRS has with Bill Gates’ taxes, they surely would have for Larry Ellison that year.
I emailed this question to the people at IRS.gov and they responded with the following:
Thank you for your inquiry. Personal information about people’s tax
information is not included on IRS.gov. This would include how Mr. Gates
prepares his returns and how they are processed by the IRS.
Sincerely,
The IRS Website Support Team
They wouldn’t respond to my request to find out who would be able to answer this type of question though.
I bet the answer is not that special computers are needed, but that special programs are needed. Perhaps there is a limit on the field size of annual income that affects how Gates’ return is processed.
I bet the IRS programs have a field size allocated to a person’s annual income, which might be NNN,NNN,NNN.NN. That’s 11 places, two of which are decimal places. If Gates makes one billlion dollars a year or more in income, then perhaps the standard IRS program would not be able to handle his return.
The problem with that, CBCD, is that many corporations do deal with billion dollar figures on their tax returns.
Now it might be possible that the program/datasets that do corporate taxes are different than the program/datasets that do personal taxes… but still, I can’t see why it would be so. I mean, Andrew Carnegie had a $500,000,000 payday back in 1901 - why a billion dollars would be so unfathomable that the IRS wouldn’t program for the contingency is beyond me.
Upon thinking about it, in 1990 (91?), btw, Michael Milken had to sell over $1.5 billion of securities to pay his $1.2 billion in fines. The capital gains rate was, iirc, 20%. There’s an example of a billion-dollar number coming through the pipes in regards to personal income taxes… I’m sure there are others. Mark Cuban, selling Broadcast.com for $800 million+ in stock and cash came close.
There are also “death taxes” - billionaires die too.
The more I think about it, the more I think Gates is full of shiite. At least, for the stated reason (that his fortune is too big). Of course, it’s all speculation on my part, but still… I’m very :dubious:
The problem with that, CBCD, is that many corporations do deal with billion dollar figures on their tax returns.
Now it might be possible that the program/datasets that do corporate taxes are different than the program/datasets that do personal taxes… but still, I can’t see why it would be so. I mean, Andrew Carnegie had a $500,000,000 payday back in 1901 - why a billion dollars would be so unfathomable that the IRS wouldn’t program for the contingency is beyond me.
Upon thinking about it, in 1990 (91?), btw, Michael Milken had to sell over $1.5 billion of securities to pay his $1.2 billion in fines. The capital gains rate was, iirc, 20%. There’s an example of a billion-dollar number coming through the pipes in regards to personal income taxes… I’m sure there are others. Mark Cuban, selling Broadcast.com for $800 million+ in stock and cash came close.
There are also “death taxes” - billionaires die too.
The more I think about it, the more I think Gates is full of shiite. At least, for the stated reason (that his fortune is too big). Of course, it’s all speculation on my part, but still… I’m very :dubious:
