Warren Buffett filed his first tax return at the age of 14 after earning $592.50 from delivering newspapers in Washington DC, and owed the US government just $7.
The two-page return, shared by the billionaire in 2017, shows how the future investor recorded income from his paper round alongside interest and dividends from shares he had bought.
Buffett’s earnings were only slightly above the filing threshold in 1944. Under the rules at the time, anyone earning at least $500 was required to submit a federal tax return.
His newspaper deliveries brought in $364, while a further $228.50 came from interest and dividends. He had bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred after beginning to invest at the age of 11.
Adjusted for inflation, the income would be worth about $11,406.65 today, while the $7 tax bill would equate to roughly $134.76.
Warren Buffett’s first tax return included bicycle costs
Even as a teenager, Buffett claimed expenses linked to his work. A handwritten note attached to the return listed $10 for watch repairs and $35 for miscellaneous bicycle costs, both associated with his newspaper route.
“I have paid federal income tax every year since 1944,” Buffett said in a 2016 statement. “Though, being a slow starter, I owed only $7 in tax that year.”
Buffett delivered morning and afternoon editions of the Washington Post and the now-defunct Washington Times-Herald. His route in the US capital passed the homes of six senators and one Supreme Court justice.
By the age of 15, he had made $2,000 from deliveries and used $1,200 to buy farmland in Nebraska, according to his 2008 biography. He also entered into a profit-sharing agreement with the farmer.
Another early venture involved buying a used pinball machine with a friend for $25 and placing it in a barbershop. Within months, they had machines operating in three locations across Washington DC and sold the business for $1,200.
From a $7 tax bill to Berkshire Hathaway
Buffett later studied under value investor Benjamin Graham at Columbia Business School, founded an investment partnership in 1956 and took control of Berkshire Hathaway in the mid-1960s.
He transformed the struggling textile manufacturer into one of the world’s most valuable companies. Berkshire Hathaway paid $26.8 billion in taxes in 2024, its highest payment to the US government at that time.
Buffett has said that, before he took control, Berkshire Hathaway “did not pay a dime of income tax”, describing that as “an embarrassment”.
He has also repeatedly argued that wealthy Americans should pay more. In 2012, he said his secretary, Debbie Bosanek, paid twice his effective tax rate despite working just as hard.
“I think that’s outrageous,” Buffett told ABC News.
His argument helped inspire the proposed “Buffett Rule”, which would have required people earning more than $1 million a year to pay at least 30% of their income in tax. The measure was blocked by a Republican filibuster in 2012.
Buffett retired as Berkshire Hathaway’s chief executive in late 2025 but remains worth an estimated $142 billion.
