Oops, now even Reuters is lying about Buffett's secretary

The media has done a very poor job of accurately reporting the effective tax rate of the secretaries of both Obama and Buffett. The latest misstep is that even Reuters is reporting that "Buffett has said he pays a lower effective tax rate than his secretary" when Buffett didn't actually make a claim about "effective tax rate." As I blogged yesterday, Buffett is adding on FICA, both the FICA that his secretary pays and the employer-paid FICA (and presumably Medicate payroll tax as well.) This is NOT the proper calculation of "effective tax rate" – and Buffett never claimed it was. There is far too much nod-and-wink sleaziness going on over these allegations of secretary tax rates. And the media is not helping to clarify the matter.

-- Jack Krupansky