Buffett and Munger Reject Corporate Tax Inversion at Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: "Berkshire paid $8.9 billion in taxes in 2013. Pfizer is currently contemplating an acquisition that would allow it to move its technical holding company overseas and thereby save income tax expense and create shareholder value. Is this something you and Charlie would ever consider if it would create value for Berkshire shareholders?"

WARREN BUFFETT: I think the answer to that is no. What do you say, Charlie? (Applause)

CHARLIE MUNGER: I think it would be — I think it would be crazy to be as prosperous as Berkshire and get our tax to zero while we remain this prosperous. That would not be a legitimate ideal. (Applause)

WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah. We could not have done Berkshire in any other country except the United States, either. You know, and just look at what we've acquired and everything. America has, in a very, very, very big way, helped Charlie and I become very, very, very rich. (Laughs). Charlie?

CHARLIE MUNGER: I've got no complaints. And I look around at this group, I see you at breakfast, it's a very happy group of people. I don't think a lot of people are gnashing their teeth that somebody else has a little more.

WARREN BUFFETT: But we don't pay — I don't want to make it holier than thou, this stuff. We don't pay anything beyond that — when we get all through figuring out tax on our 20,000 page-plus return, we just don't — we don't add a tip of 20 percent or 15 percent or anything. (Laughter) And we do certain transactions which are tax driven. We're in low-income housing tax credits, which, actually, George Bush 41 congratulated me for. So it's bipartisan. We — the wind energy deals we do, the solar deals we do, they are tax driven to — I mean, they won't make economic sense otherwise. So, we follow the rules. But we don't begrudge the taxes we've earned a lot of money while paying U.S. taxes. (Applause)