Welcome to The Inquiry. I'm Charmaine Cozier, each week, one question, four experts, and an answer.

August the 14th, 2011. The New York Times newspaper publishes an essay with the title,

Stop coddling the Super Rich. The writer shares his opinion on America's millionaires,

billionaires, and taxes. The message is clear. Lawmakers must make them pay more.

The surprising thing about the piece is that it wasn't written by an anti-wealth activist,

but by one of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffett. He was clear he should be paying more taxes.

A few weeks ago, a news story spread around the world that some of the wealthiest people in America

pay almost no income taxes and only a tiny fraction of their wealth in taxes. Among the famous names

was perhaps one surprise, Warren Buffett. As the fortunes of billionaires continue to rise,

the calls for them to pay a fairer share are getting louder. So this week we're asking,

can we make the Super Rich pay more tax?

Part 1. Buy, borrow, die.

What we found is that the ultra-wealthy are effectively outside of the American tax system.

Jesse Eisinger is a senior reporter and editor for ProPublica, an online newsroom.

He spent months with his team of journalists researching, analyzing and verifying raw financial

data for a major story. Some of it went back as far as 15 years.

It's one of the largest amounts of information that has emerged in the history of the American

government. Then in June this year, the first of those investigations went live with a headline

that surprised many. Some of the wealthiest people in the world pay zero in federal income tax.

So Jeff Bezos, who's the world's richest human being, paid zero in federal income taxes in 2007 and

2011. Elon Musk runs Tesla and has been the second richest person in the world, paid zero in

federal income taxes in 2018. And we have a host of other people who paid zero in federal income

...