No. of Recommendations: 23
hclasvegas: It looks like he has now decided to pay 50 BILLION or so in taxes on realized gains in 2024.
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This number looks way high. How are you calculating this capital gains tax bill?
The taxable amount is in the statements.
"Our sales of equity securities produced taxable gains of $59.6 billion in the second quarter and $73.7 billion in the first six months of 2024"
So, assuming that there are no related tax credits, I presume the tax is the headline 21% rate on that.
So, roughly:
Tax due to stock sales = about $12.5 billion in the second quarter and about $15.5 billion in the first six months of 2024.
It's still a lot of tax.
The only logical interpretation that I see is that management believed that the most likely medium-to-long run upside from the after tax proceeds from the sales was more than the medium-to-long run upside from the before-tax Apple stock at the realized price. Berkshire probably took on a tax liability of around $33 per share sold. (cost basis $34.26, selling at prices around $190?) So, by extension, Mr B thought he could make more money from ~$157 in cash than he could from an Apple share.
Apple not demonstrably worth its current quote? Going to a abnormally large cash allocation this year isn't such a terrible idea?
The explanation is simple: he's been reading my posts : )
Jim
