Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Warzer Jaff)
How rich is billionaire Mayor Bloomberg?
So rich that the IRS paid him interest of between $1,000 and $5,000 last year when it was late on a refund.
So rich that the 35-acre estate he bought in Southampton for $20 million a couple of years ago wasn’t big enough, so he spent at least $1 million more for two additional pieces of land next door.
So rich that he donated $370 million to charity in 2012, or $59 million more than in 2011.
Reporters turned prospectors yesterday to extract those financial nuggets from Bloomberg’s 2012 tax returns, which are made available each year in such heavily redacted form that it’s impossible to calculate the mayor’s true wealth.
Forbes has estimated it at $27 billion, which would make him the 13th-richest person on the planet.
Glimpses of that fabulous fortune were on display nearly everywhere in the 107-page IRS return.
Foreign bank accounts? He’s got them in Paris, London, Hong Kong and Bermuda.
“Diversification of assets,” was the explanation of a mayoral aide.
The mayor hired enough staffers last year to pay between $250,000 and $500,000 just in household employment taxes.
Georgina Bloomberg, the mayor’s younger daughter, got a loan from her dad. The amount wasn’t listed. But the interest she paid him was between $5,000 and $44,000.
Money, it seems, was pouring in from every direction.
When the NHL and NBA seasons were delayed, Bloomberg collected interest from Madison Square Garden for the money he had plunked down for season tickets to the Rangers and Knicks. The amount was less than $1,000.
Reruns of “Law & Order” and “The Adjustment Bureau” brought the mayor residuals of between $1,000 and $5,000. Bloomberg had walk-ons in the TV series and in the quickly forgotten thriller starring Matt Damon.
Aides stressed that all of Bloomberg’s worldwide income flows through New York and he pays taxes at the highest federal, state and city levels.
“No carried interest,” said a Bloomberg accountant, referring to the tactic employed by hedge funds to duck taxes.
But there was no way to calculate the mayor’s actual tax rate after all the deductions because numbers on the returns were replaced with letters covering broad categories, starting with “A” for $1,000 to $5,000, and topping off at “G” for $500,000 or more. But he likely paid hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.
Aides say competitors could get an edge if the mayor revealed more detailed financial information because he owns about 85 percent of Bloomberg LP.