To the Editor:
If Warren E. Buffett (“Stop Coddling the Super-Rich,” Op-Ed, Aug. 15) wants to pay more in taxes, no one is stopping him. Federal and state income tax codes specify a minimum tax obligation on the basis of income. In other words, millionaires and billionaires like Mr. Buffett—and any other taxpayer for that matter—can pay more taxes to the government without waiting for Congress or their state legislatures to tell them they must.
But it won’t make much difference. The Internal Revenue Service’s own statistics indicate that if the top 1 percent of all taxpayers (households with annual income of more than $380,000) were taxed at a rate of 100 percent, it would net $938 billion, which would barely make a dent in the nation’s multitrillion-dollar annual budget.
The solution to our dilemma is not to increase tax rates but to increase the number of taxpayers, while reducing the national budget.
JACK LeMENAGER
Winchester, Mass., Aug. 15, 2011
