The leaked data indicated billionaires including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla's Elon Musk paid no federal income tax during some years.
The US Treasury Department has asked law enforcement authorities to investigate the disclosure of tax records cited in a media report showing some of America's richest people paid little to no income taxes, officials say.
ProPublica described the records as "confidential" and did not disclose how it obtained them The data indicated billionaires including Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk paid no federal income tax during some years The matter has been referred to the FBI, federal prosecutors and two internal Treasury Department watchdogs US media outlet ProPublica said it obtained "a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation's wealthiest people, covering more than 15 years". The data indicated billionaires, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla's Elon Musk, paid no federal income taxes during some years. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said "any unauthorised disclosure of confidential government information" was illegal. Treasury Department spokeswoman Lily Adams said in an emailed statement the matter had been referred to the FBI, federal prosecutors and two internal Treasury Department watchdogs, "all of whom have independent authority to investigate".The Internal Revenue Service , part of the Treasury Department, is the nation's tax-collecting agency and many tax records are considered confidential documents."Obviously we take it very seriously," Ms Psaki told a briefing.US President Joe Biden has to sought tax increases for the wealthy to help fund proposed spending on infrastructure and social programs. Those plans include raising the top tax rate to 39.6 per cent from the current 37 per cent and nearly doubling the capital gains tax rate to 39.6 per cent for Americans earning $US1 million annually or more. "We know that there is more to be done to ensure that corporations [and] individuals who are at the highest income are paying more of their fair share," Ms Psaki said.
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