'Something has to give'—Warren Buffett advocates for higher corporate taxes

As the debate around taxes heats up ahead of the election, billionaire investor Warren Buffett chimes in.

During Berkshire Hathaway's hotly anticipated annual meeting in Omaha, the 93-year-old said his company would be prepared to pay a much higher level of corporate tax.

In Buffett's view, "something has to give"—and the government will eventually have to pull one of the few levers it has at its disposal to tackle the budget deficit.

He has previously expressed discomfort at the fact that his personal assistant pays a higher rate of tax than he does, despite Forbes estimating his wealth at $133 billion.

At the annual meeting, he also said that Americans should be "bothered" that many major corporations are failing to pay their fair share like Berkshire Hathaway does.

"If 800 other companies had done the same thing, no other person in the United States would have had to pay a dime," Buffett argued—describing "substantial" taxes for successful businesses as "appropriate."

Back in 2017, the Trump administration slashed corporate tax rates from 35% to 21%. Now, as the tax cuts are about to expire, Democrats and Republicans are at odds over where they should go next.

While Donald Trump has vowed to keep corporate rates frozen, Joe Biden—whose chances of re-election have been plunged into doubt following a dismal TV debate performance—is calling for a rise to 28%.

According to the Biden administration, the tax hike would boost federal revenues by $1.35 trillion.

When it comes to the advice he has for everyday Americans grappling with the biggest wealth gap in history, Buffett says investing matters… as well as tuning out of the pundit "jabbering."

Back in 2017, he told PBS, "They should just keep buying and buying and buying a little bit of America as they go along. And 30 or 40 years from now, they will have a lot of money."

However, Buffett has cautioned against picking stocks. Instead, he suggests that the most reliable way to build wealth is to invest in diversified funds, such as S&P 500 ETFs.

Buffett reveals his will

Last week, Buffett announced that the vast majority of his extraordinary wealth will be placed into a brand-new charitable trust when he passes away.

Overseen by his daughter and two sons, this means that long-running contributions made to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would come to an end.

Buffett's children will be tasked with unanimously choosing the good causes that should receive financial support from the trust.

He also disclosed that, despite already giving away half of his Berkshire Hathaway shares in recent decades, his stake remains valued at almost $130 billion.

"There's eight billion people in the world, and me and my kids, we've been in the luckiest 100th of 1% or something. There's lots of ways to help people," he told The Wall Street Journal.

Susie, Howie and Peter Buffett all already run charitable foundations of their own, which focus on childhood education, food security and supporting indigenous communities respectively.