Microsoft founder Bill Gates's father, the lawyer Bill Gates Sr., wants his son to have to pay more state income taxes. Mr. Gates Sr. gives an interview to Bloomberg News expressing support for a Washington State initiative to impose a state income tax on individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and couples earning more than $400,000. "Poor people and middle-income people are paying too much to support the state and rich people aren't paying enough," Mr. Gates Sr. says.
If Mr. Gates Sr. wants to pay more in on a voluntary basis that is one thing, though, as David Koch points out, it will mean he has less to give away in charity. Instead he wants to force those earning a little more than $200,000 a year to pay in more, too. It's one thing for Mr. Gates Sr. to think his son is too rich, another thing to back a law imposing his views on the rest of the state. If it passes, the younger Gates may want to consider moving farther away from his dad, to a lower-tax jurisdiction.
