Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America • Hacker News Board

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#181

Post by jazzyjackson » Thu, Jun 26, 2025, 9:35 PM UTC

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #179

jazzyjackson wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this is a myth people share without ever looking into. You service the debt with income that you make and pay tax on the income you service the debt with

Bro, this is HN. Most of us here know at least one person who does this. It seemed pretty popular with the early Facebook folks. So this talking point that this is a myth isn't going to work here.

Well by all means educate me, do these people just not make payments on the loan? Take out another loan to pay the first one? I just don't see how taking out loans prevents you from paying taxes on income, assuming you have to make payments with some income somewhere.

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#182

Post by vel0city » Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 1:27 PM UTC

mulmen wrote: post #176

vel0city wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FSAs don't. https://www.healthcare.gov/have-job-based-coverage/flexible-...

Sure but you do have a tax advantaged way to cover medical expenses.

A way to cover some medical expenses. Not necessarily all. And once again, only if I play games with weird savings accounts rules. If I put money into either of these accounts it's expensive to take out, if possible at all. And with FSAs one needs to essentially guess what their healthcare costs will be and risk losing it at the end of the year if unused.

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#183

Post by _DeadFred_ » Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 3:45 PM UTC

jazzyjackson wrote: post #181

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bro, this is HN. Most of us here know at least one person who does this. It seemed pretty popular with the early Facebook folks. So this talking point that this is a myth isn't going to work here.

Well by all means educate me, do these people just not make payments on the loan? Take out another loan to pay the first one? I just don't see how taking out loans prevents you from paying taxes on income, assuming you have to make payments with some income somewhere.

If they need 10 million for a house they take out a loan against their stock for the purchase. They then only pay tax on the income to service that loan, not the entire 10 million.

If they gain more on the 10 million still in stock than the interest on the loan the numbers benefited them. They effectively have 20 million in assets working for them for the modest debt services and without a tax haircut. In the other case they would have half the assets working for them plus would have had to pay 2 million to get those assets.

Meta is up 240% in the last five years. Which is better, not paying modest debt service and paying 2 million taxes AND missing a 240% gain on 12 million (home cost plus taxes), or keeping the 10 million working for you (and the 2 million you didn't pay to taxes) and gaining 240% on it?