Warren Buffett’s first tax bill at age 14 was $7. Now Berkshire Hathaway’s is almost $27 billion—and he still says the rich don’t pay enough

In 1944 at the tender age of 14, Warren Buffett, then a paperboy delivering newspapers in Washington D.C., filed his very first tax return. The modest earnings from his paper route amounted to $592.50, just above the $500 threshold required for filing a tax return. Despite this relatively small income, he still owed only $7 in federal taxes.

This humble beginning laid the foundation for the financial empire that would later grow into Berkshire Hathaway, posting a tax bill of nearly $27 billion in 2024. Throughout his career, Buffett has consistently maintained that he does not pay enough taxes, a viewpoint that has occasionally put him at odds with the U.S. government. Despite this, he has always paid his taxes, with a tax compliance that started in 1944.