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A tax leak of some of the wealthiest people in the world, including Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Elon Musk, has led the Biden Administration to announce an investigation into how this information was made public.
A trove of never-before-seen IRS records was published by ProPublica earlier in the week. The investigation comes after said report revealed how the likes of Bezos, Buffett, Musk, Bill Gates, George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Bloomberg have legally avoided paying income tax.
Treasury spokeswoman Lily Adams commented, “The unauthorized disclosure of confidential government information is illegal.”
“The matter is being referred to the Office of the Inspector General, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, all of whom have independent authority to investigate,” Adams added.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had the following to say in regard to some of wealthiest people in the world benefitting off of tax code loopholes: “I’m not going to comment on specific unauthorized disclosures of confidential government information. I can tell you that, broadly speaking, we know that there is more tone done to ensure that corporations and individuals who are at the highest income are paying more of their fair share. Hence, it’s in the President’s proposals, his budget and how he’s proposing to pay for his ideas.”
ProPublica has not revealed exactly how it obtained these files. “Every person whose tax information is described in this story was asked to comment, ProPublica said. “This who responded all said they had paid the taxes they owed.”
