Buffett exits as Gates Foundation trustee, sidestepping rift

[NEW YORK] Warren Buffett resigned as a trustee at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as the charity grapples with upheaval created by the divorce of its namesake founders, and the billionaire finds himself at the centre of controversy over the ultra-wealthy and taxes.

"My goals are 100 per cent in sync with those of the foundation," Mr Buffett, 90, said Wednesday in a statement that also announced he had reached the halfway mark in giving all of his Berkshire Hathaway shares to charity.

Mr Buffett has contributed almost US$33 billion of his own money to the charity over the past 15 years. He's one of the Gates Foundation's three board members, alongside Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, who announced last month they're splitting after 27 years of marriage.

Mr Buffett, who said he played "an inactive" role as trustee, didn't mention the divorce as a reason for his resignation, while giving a broader statement about his philanthropy, taxes and dynastic wealth.

Mr Buffett has faced criticism in recent weeks amid an investigation by ProPublica into how certain wealthy individuals, including the Berkshire chairman and chief executive officer, pay low tax rates relative to their fortunes.

Mr Buffett said that his US$41 billion of contributions to five foundations has produced only about 40 cents of tax savings per US$1,000 given.

"That's because I have relatively little income," Mr Buffett said in the statement. "My wealth remains almost entirely deployed in tax-paying businesses that I own through my Berkshire stockholdings, and Berkshire regularly reinvests earnings to further grow its output, employment and earnings. The income I receive from other assets allows me to live as I wish."

He said it's "fitting" for Congress to periodically revisit tax policy for charitable contributions, especially when certain donors get "imaginative."

Mr Buffett's resignation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation board marks another shift in the long-time partnership, and friendship, with Bill Gates.

Both Mr Buffett and Mr Gates frequently play bridge together and have travelled to places including China as a group. Mr Gates previously served on Berkshire's board, before announcing last year that he would step down from that post.

Berkshire's CEO decided in 2006 to donate the bulk of his wealth to the Gates foundation in part because the pair does a "much better job" at running those charity operations than Mr Buffett says he could.

The divorce puts Mr Buffet in an awkward position, as tie-breaker for the two exes, said Greg Witkowski, a senior lecturer of nonprofit management at Columbia University.

"With only three board members, it does really put a lot of attention on Warren Buffett's role in the middle of that," Mr Witkowski said soon after the divorce. "In an ideal setup, they would have had more trustees."

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