The untaxed rich (with ProPublica's Stephen Engelberg)
Skullduggery
Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman, Victoria Bassetti
4.0 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2021
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The ultrarich have ways of avoiding paying income tax that regular people simply don’t have access to. This unfair balance-tipping is the subject of new reporting by ProPublica investigators, whose sources furnished them with a trove of data revealing the secrets of the megawealthy. ProPublica editor in chief Stephen Engelberg joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti to discuss their reporting.
Plus, get a sneak peek of the new season of the critically-acclaimed podcast Conspiracyland. Season 3: The Secret Lives and Brutal Death of Jamal Khashoggi debuts on Monday, June 14th.
GUEST:
- Stephen Engelberg (@SteveEngelberg), editor in chief, ProPublica
HOSTS:
- Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
- Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
- Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)
RESOURCES:
- “Conspiracyland Season 3: The Secret Lives and Brutal Death of Jamal Khashoggi
- “The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax” by Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen, and Paul Kiel (June 8; ProPublica)
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| 0:00.0 | How much to the super rich really pay in taxes? A new bombshell report by ProBublica says |
| 0:08.5 | the answer is very little, and when they do so it's at a far lower rate than the rest |
| 0:13.8 | of us. In 2018 Tesla founder Elon Musk, either the world's richest or second richest man |
| 0:20.7 | depending on who's counting, paid no federal income taxes at all. There was one year |
| 0:26.6 | in 2007 when his chief rival Jeff Bezos, already a billionaire, also paid ZIP to the IRS, |
| 0:33.1 | according to the news organization. ProBublica reached these conclusions after receiving |
| 0:37.4 | an extraordinary leak, a treasure trove of personal data that included the personal tax |
| 0:42.4 | returns of some of the wealthiest individuals in the country. What does ProBublica know |
| 0:47.2 | about its source? And what should we make of this information? We'll talk to ProBublica's |
| 0:51.7 | editor-in-chief Steve Engelberg on this episode of Skull Duggery. |
| 0:57.9 | I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United |
| 1:04.7 | States. And both, that's my building. Reserve, protect and defend. Constitution of the |
| 1:11.1 | United States. So help me God. So help me God. So help me God. So help me God. |
| 1:20.4 | I'm Michael Isacovsky, investigative correspondent for Yahoo News. |
| 1:23.7 | I'm Dan Clyde, manager-in-chief of Yahoo News. |
| 1:26.1 | And I'm Victoria Besedi, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. |
| 1:30.3 | Well, as reporters, we all love leaks of newsworthy information. And I got to say, this |
| 1:39.5 | leak to ProBublica is pretty amazing to see that these super billionaires, |
| 1:50.0 | Bezos, Musk, George Soros and others, are paying little to no taxes is headspinning. |
| 1:59.2 | On the other hand, how did ProBublica get this information? It is a violation of federal |
| 2:08.5 | law for anybody at the IRS to leak somebody's personal tax returns. Could it have been |
| 2:14.3 | from some sort of hack we don't know about? |
... |
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