Billionaire Bill Gates told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday that he and others who make insanely high amounts of money should be paying “significantly higher taxes” than they currently are.
"I need to pay higher taxes," Gates said. "I've paid more taxes, over $10 billion, than anyone else, but the government should require the people in my position to pay significantly higher taxes.”
Gates added that the GOP’s latest tax bill – which paved the way for millions of Americans to receive higher wages, better benefits and one-time cash bonuses, while also allowing companies to create more jobs in the U.S. – was a “regressive” tax bill that left bazillionaires like him with too much of their own money.
"People who are wealthier tended to get dramatically more benefits than the middle class or those who are poor, and so it runs counter to the general trend you'd like to see, where the safety net is getting stronger and those at the top are paying higher taxes," he said.
Interestingly, Gates did not mention any plans to donate to the IRS or voluntarily cut a check to the U.S. Treasury to help reduce the U.S. debt (which you can do here).
Billionaire Bill Gates says he should pay "significantly higher" taxes https://t.co/Cvn6Kc3Ktu pic.twitter.com/GG9F6SqJ01
— CNN (@CNN) February 19, 2018
(Cover Photo: Department for International Development/Russell Watkins)