Daniel S. Loeb, shown with his wife, Margaret, runs the $17 billion Third Point hedge fund. Mr. Loeb, who owns a home in East Hampton, has contributed to Jeb Bush’s Super PAC and given $1 million to the American Unity Super PAC, which supports gay rights. Credit Left: Patrick McMullan/Pmc
Tuesday, December 29, 2015 11:27 AM EST
(nytimes.com) With inequality at its highest levels in nearly a century and public debate rising over whether the government should respond to it through higher taxes on the wealthy, the very richest Americans have financed a sophisticated and astonishingly effective apparatus for shielding their fortunes.
Operating largely out of public view — in tax court, through arcane legislative provisions, and in private negotiations with the Internal Revenue Service — the wealthy have used their influence to steadily whittle away at the government’s ability to tax them. The effect has been to create a kind of private tax system, catering to only several thousand Americans.