Warren Buffett resigns as trustee of Gates Foundation and donates another $4.1 billion

While announcing his resignation as the trustee at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Warren Buffet on June 23 said that he will donate $4.1 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway shares to five foundations. According to a press release, Warren informed that this year’s donation marked the halfway point for him as he had pledged in 2006 to give away all his Berkshire shares through annual gifts to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation. Back then, the legendary investor owned 474,998 Berkshire “A” shares and today, he said that he owns  238,624 shares, worth about $100 billion.

Buffet said, “Today is a milestone for me. In 2006, I pledged to distribute all of my Berkshire Hathaway shares – more than 99% of my net worth – to philanthropy. With today’s $4.1 billion distribution, I’m halfway there”. 

Further, Buffett also announced his resignation as the trustee at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which comes as the charity grapples with upheaval created by the divorce of its namesake founders. According to Bloomberg, the 90-year-old has contributed more than $27 billion of his own money to the charity over the past 15 years. Buffett is also one of the Gates Foundation’s three board members, alongside Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. 

“For years I have been a trustee – an inactive trustee at that – of only one recipient of my funds, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMG). I am now resigning from that post, just as I have done at all corporate boards other than Berkshire’s,” Buffet said. 

He added, “The CEO of BMG is Mark Suzman, an outstanding recent selection who has my full support. My goals are 100% in sync with those of the foundation, and my physical participation is in no way needed to achieve these goals”. 

‘Remarks are no swan song’ 

Meanwhile, Bill and Buffett have been longtime friends. The Gates along with Buffett were creators of the Giving Pledge, a program that requires participants to give away more than half of their wealth. Buffett’s note Tuesday addressed the tax deductions gained by philanthropy. 

He reiterated that his $41 billion of contributions to five foundations has produced only about 40 cents of tax savings per $1,000 given. He explained that that’s because he has relatively “little income" and his wealth remains almost entirely deployed in tax-paying businesses that he owns through his Berkshire stock holdings. Buffett added that Berkshire regularly reinvests earnings to further grow its output, employment and earnings. Therefore, the income he receives from other assets allows him to live as he wishes. 

“Please understand that these remarks are no swan song," the billionaire investor said in the statement. “I still relish being on the field and carrying the ball. But I’m clearly playing in a game that, for me, has moved past the fourth quarter into overtime."

IMAGE: AP