Yes, Martha, some billionaires don't pay taxes

Graphic: The Top 400: Lower Taxes and More Capital Gains and Dividends

Can People as Rich as Romney Escape Taxes? They Can

By JAMES B. STEWART, NYT
Published: August 10, 2012

On the face of it, Senator Harry Reid’s explosive but flimsily sourced claim that Mitt Romney paid no income tax seems preposterous. Mr. Romney has denied it, and without his returns no one can say for sure. But for someone who makes millions of dollars a year, would it even be possible?

Evidently it is.

It so happens that this summer the Internal Revenue Service released data from the 400 individual income tax returns reporting the highest adjusted gross income. This elite ultrarich group earned on average $202 million in 2009, the latest year available. And buried in the data is the startling disclosure that six of the 400 paid no federal income tax.

The I.R.S. has never before disclosed that last fact.

(More here.)