Berkshire Hathaway and market guru Buffett speaking to CNBC 26 Feb
" I am fairly confident we will find a way to deploy Berkshire's $116bln in cash"
- I would choose equities in a minute over long-term bonds
- more inclined to repurchase stock than pay dividends as a means to use excess cash
On Saturday Buffett announced annual results to shareholders and revealed that the company's net-worth increased last year to $65.3 bln, with $29 bln of that coming from the change in tax law.
"We had about $100 billion of unrealized gain in equities. When they're sold you pay tax on that. And previously when the tax was 35 percent we would have had a $35 billion reserve for taxes against that as a liability. That would drop to about 21 billion," he said. "So $14 billion, roughly, was a reduction in the amount of tax that when we sell those securities we will pay. It wasn't cash now. But it reduced a liability. When you reduce a liability net worth goes up."
The recent tax changes lowered the federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Nice windfall but let's see how it impacts the economy at large.
Full CNBC interview vid here
