Warren Buffett’s Berkshire pays “taxes” 21 miles in height, 3x the level at which airplanes cruise

If one piles up $32 billion, the stack will be more than 21 miles in height, about three times the level at which commercial aircraft usually cruise.

That’s the amount of tax Berkshire Hathaway paid between 2012-21.

“Brace yourself – had there been roughly 1,000 taxpayers in the US matching Berkshire’s payments, no other businesses nor any of the country’s 131 million households would have needed to pay any taxes to the federal government. Not a dime,” wrote the Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffett in his annual shareholder letter.

Also Read: Warren Buffett on Berkshire's success: Not just smart investing but lots of luck

Thus, individuals, who own Berkshire shares can unequivocally state “I gave at the office”, he added.

Over the next decade, Buffett hopes that the pile grows in height as he owes Berkshire’s success to the United States of America.

“We count on the American Tailwind and, though it has been becalmed from time to time, its propelling force has always returned,” he wrote.

On US Treasury expenditure being significantly higher than tax collection, Buffett plead ignorance and said that he and Charlie (Munger) firmly believe that near-term economic and market forecasts are ‘worse than useless’.

The bottom line, despite expenditure imbalances and runaway inflation, he believes, is betting on America.

“I have yet to see a time when it made sense to make a long-term bet against America. And I doubt very much that any reader of this letter will have a different experience in the future,” he wrote.