Tax Break Included in "Fiscal Cliff" Bill Will Benefit Warren Buffett

by Robert Wenzel
EconomicPolicyJournal
Jan. 03, 2013

Your paycheck will most decidedly go down because the bill that just worked its way through Congress failed to extend the 2% payroll tax break. But it is not the same for friends of Obama.

I already pointed out that Hollywood will get a tax break, but so will Warren Buffett.

Nick Badalamenti emails to point out that the bill has a tax break for railroads in it. ABC reports:

[...] buried in the fine print of the 150-page deal are also some lesser-known New Year’s gifts to some of Washington’s favorite industries[...]

$331 million for railroads by allowing short-line and regional operators to claim a tax credit up to 50 percent of the cost to maintain tracks that they own or lease.

In February 2012, Bloomberg reported that in addition to spending billions on core railroad projects:

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. plans to boost [other] capital spending at its railroad.

The railroad’s plan calls for $400 million in terminal, intermodal-expansion and efficiency projects, including on coal routes. The rail serves mines in the Western U.S., including Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, which holds the largest and cheapest U.S. reserves of the power-plant fuel.

Badalamenti concludes:

That Buffett sure is a genius, isn't he? It's almost like he made that investment with some form of advance knowledge huh? lol