Online Class Notes (Jesse)

As a normal people, I always gossip with my friends how riches are getting richer and richer.
And I found an answer from the video which is called “ how the rich avoid paying taxes?” The video raised an example of the richest man, Warrant Buffett and explained how he run his company.
Actually, his company is a holding company with a bunch of other companies, as well as a lots of stock in other companies, so his company’s stock will go up when the other companies’ stock go up. Buffet owns about 240,000 of these shares, and this is where his wealth is. But according to the USA’s policy, even though Buffett earns lots of money through his stock, he still pays a lower tax rate than his secretary which is pretty outrageous. The reason for that is they pay different types of taxes, his secretary pays income taxes on her salary, and Buffett mainly pays capital gains taxes on his sold stock which tax at nearly half rate, it makes the result that in the US, the disparity between the rich and normal people has been growing, the rich pay less in taxes than people that work for a living. Most people have a normal job and pay income tax ranging from 10-37percent, but people who make their income from investments, they only need to pay a maximum tax rate of just 20%. When they sell the stock or real state, if no sell, no tax. This is the actual situation in the USA, so apart from go to work, people may consider to invest something to earn more money and make their lives better.

As a normal person, I always gossip with my friends how rich people / the rich are getting richer and richer.
And I found an answer from the video which is called “ how the rich avoid paying taxes”. The video raised an example of the richest man, Warren Buffett and explained how he ran / has been running his company.
Actually, his organisation is a holding company with a bunch of others, as well as a lot of stock in other companies, so his company’s stock will go up when the other companies’ stock go up. Buffet owns about 240,000 of these shares, and this is where his wealth is. But according to the USA’s policy, even though Buffett earns lots of money through his stock, he still pays a lower tax rate than his secretary which is pretty outrageous. The reason for that is they pay different types of taxes, with his secretary paying income taxes on her salary, and Buffett mainly paying capital gains taxes on his sold stock which is taxed at nearly half the rate, it means that the result is in the US, the disparity between the rich and normal people has been growing and the rich pay less in taxes than people that work for a living. Most people have a normal job and pay income tax ranging from 10-37 percent, but people, who make their income from investments, they only need to pay a maximum tax rate of just 20%. When they sell the stock or real state, if they don’t sell it, they don’t pay tax. This is the actual situation in the USA, so apart from going to work / working daily / their daily work / jobs, people may consider to invest / consider investing in something to earn more money and make their lives better.

…at nearly half the rate which results in the US having a growing disparity between rich and normal people.

Vocabulary

company = business / organisation / firm / enterprise / corporation

invest = put money into sth / get into stock / purchase some investment / buy into stock

to minus the difficult – to decrease the difficulty

tax free threshold – the amount you can earn before needing to pay tax

tax bracket – the way income is separated into different rates of tax

the pirate found riches at the bottom of the ocean

Grammar

I can go places over a bike – by bike

earn money difficultly – earn money with difficulty

Pronunciation

range
rage – “out rage jess”