Warren Buffett says his company made billions from GOP tax reform

Warren Buffett said that the Republican tax law passed last year made his company billions of dollars.

“Berkshire’s gain in net worth during 2017 was $65.3 billion, which increased the per-share book value of both our Class A and Class B stock by 23 percent,” Buffett wrote in a letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that accompanied the company’s annual report.

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Nearly 45 percent of Berkshire’s $65 billion gains in 2017 are attributed to the tax law, according to Buffett.

“A large portion of our gain did not come from anything we accomplished at Berkshire. The $65 billion gain is nonetheless real — rest assured of that. But only $36 billion came from Berkshire’s operations. The remaining $29 billion was delivered to us in December when Congress rewrote the U.S. Tax Code,” Buffett wrote.

Before the law was passed, Buffett had said at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in May that the tax law could impact the company’s earnings, according to a Yahoo Finance report. However, the earnings ended up being larger than he had predicted.

The Republican tax law was signed into law in December 2017. While at first unpopular, public opinion for the law is beginning to change.

Critics continue to knock the law, saying it disproportionately helps rich Americans and corporations over Americans with lower incomes.