Billionaire tax scandal: Rather than address a rotten system, America turns its fire on the leaker(s)

Despite their exploding wealth, the 25 richest Americans paid a true tax rate of just 3.4 per cent between 2014 and 2018. James Moore considers how it got to this point

Laughing all the way to the bank: Jeff Bezos was able to pay zero income tax in 2007 and 2011, according to data obtained by ProPublica (Getty Images)

We have to find the leaker(s), tie them to a stake and burn them! Burn all the witches and warlocks!

That pretty much sums up the attitude of the authorities in the US to the first release of what ProPublica, a non-profit news service, says is a vast trove of data it has obtained covering the tax affairs of America’s richest citizens.

Here’s your headline figures: between 2014 and 2018, America’s 25 richest Americans saw their wealth increase by a staggering $401bn (according to Forbes). During that time they paid a collective $13.6bn in tax, which is a sizeable sum but amounts, when set against that first dizzying figure, to so much sweet FA.