Some of America’s uber-rich paid next to no US income tax, report says. Now, the FBI is involved
- US Treasury Department investigates disclosure of tax records of some of the nation’s richest citizens
- ProPublica reports that the likes of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk paid little to no income taxes
The US Treasury Department has asked law enforcement authorities to investigate the disclosure of tax records cited in a bombshell media report that showed that some of America’s richest people paid little to no income taxes.
US media outlet ProPublica said it obtained “a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, covering more than 15 years”. The data showed Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos paid no income tax in 2007 and 2011, while Tesla chief Elon Musk avoided all payments in 2018.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that “any unauthorised disclosure of confidential government information” is illegal.
Treasury Department spokeswoman Lily Adams said that the matter has been referred to the FBI, federal prosecutors and two internal Treasury Department watchdogs, “all of whom have independent authority to investigate”.
The IRS, part of the Treasury Department, is the nation’s tax-collecting agency and many tax records are considered confidential documents.
