US debate intensifies over taxes on the rich

(From the ft.com) Henry Bloch knows a lot about taxes and a lot about wealth. He is the retired honorary chairman of H&R Block, a Kansas City-based tax services company, which he founded with his brother in 1955. Having amassed a fortune by helping Americans process their tax returns, the philanthropist – and registered Republican – believes the time has come for higher taxes on his richest fellow countrymen.

“It’s not going to hurt the wealthy to part with a little money,” Mr Bloch, 89, a navigator on B-17 bomber missions during the second world war, told the Financial Times this week. “This is a wonderful country and that’s the least they could do.”

Mr Bloch’s words highlight the intensity of the debate over the taxation of the highest-income Americans as the US struggles to find ways to reduce its long-term budget deficits.

On Monday, Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, proclaimed that he too was in favour of raising more revenue from his cohorts. “While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks,” Mr Buffett wrote in The New York Times.

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