Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest people, said he would be much poorer and would have paid way more in taxes if he were in charge of the US tax system.
In an interview with the Independent, when asked if he considered himself to be too rich, Gates said: “If I designed the tax system, I would be tens of billion dollars poorer than I am.”
He said that the US tax system “could be more progressive without significantly damaging the incentive to do fantastic things.”
The multi-billionaire Microsoft founder told the Independent that he’s a “huge believer” in more progressive taxation and the estate tax, explaining that he doesn’t believe wealth and power should be concentrated in families because of past successes.
“I don’t think we should generally generationally let families whose great grandfather, through luck and skill, accumulated a lot of wealth, have the economic or political power that comes with that,” he said.
Gates has previously said that his children would only inherit a tiny fraction of his fortune — $10 million each — barely a dent in his net worth of about $158 billion.
Instead, he has committed huge chunks of his wealth to charitable causes.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the wealthiest foundations in the world by endowment value, with an endowment of about $75 billion.
According to the foundation’s website, Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, have given about $59.5 billion to the foundation from its inception through 2023.
Alongside Warren Buffett, Gates also founded a charitable campaign, the “Giving Pledge,” to encourage ultrawealthy people to contribute the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.
Notable signatories include Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
Despite efforts to promote philanthropy among the superwealthy, Gates told the Independent that it’s not enough to fix the world’s problems.
“The big work still has to be done by government,” Gates said.
“Philanthropy is not a substitute for government,” he added. “Making sure everybody’s educated, has food, has shelter — it’s the government who’s going to create that safety net.”
