Billionaire George Soros, and his son Robert Soros, were among 18 billionaires and many millionaires who received stimulus check from the American government meant to help keep the economy going during the Covid shutdowns.
ProPublica uncovered the information by going through IRS documents. It determined that 270 taxpayers who collectively disclosed $5.7 billion in income to the government, were able to get the stimulus checks because they did not have enough money listed as “income” on their tax returns.
Soros is worth an estimated $8.6 billion.
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Three stimulus checks were intended to help Americans who struggling financially due to the Coronavirus pandemic. They were distributed in March and in December 2020, and again in April 2021. But the money distributed by the American government was meant to go only to people who had earned less than $75,000 in income for the year 2018.
The first checks were for $1,200. The second check was for $600 and the final one went up to $1,400.
So, how did billionaires get the money too? Well, it has to do with the quirks in the American tax code. You see, the government needed a way to determine who was eligible for the money. It did not have either the time, or the inclination, to check everyone’ bank accounts or to do a thorough review of a recipient’s net worth.
So, how did the U.S. government know who to give money to? It determined who was an eligible recipient based on previous tax returns. Income tax returns that is. And since so many of the country’s super-rich people like George Soros earn all of their money from investments, and not earned income, they did not have an income tax return of above $75,000.
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The pandemic as made plain the inequities in our economy. To better protect workers and their families, create more sustainable jobs, and foster a fairer economy, @OpenSociety has joined the Families and Workers Fund. https://t.co/82CPxT2SWq
— George Soros (@georgesoros) October 28, 2021
A spokesman for George Soros said that he returned his check to the government.
Among the other wealthy stimulus check recipients were Timothy Headington, an oil mogul and, real estate developer a worth $1.4 billion. He had $62 million in income in 2018, but after $342 million in write-offs, his final result was negative $280 million.
Another was Ira Rennert, who is worth $3.7 billion according to Forbes. Forrest Preston, the founder of Life Care Centers of America, one of the largest long-term care companies in the U.S., is worth $1.2 billion. Former Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld was another.
