Warren Buffett has told a Republican Congressman that his adjusted gross income last year came to $62,855,038, with taxable income of $39,814,784.  He also paid $15,300 in payroll taxes.

The numbers are from a letter sent by Buffett to Rep. Tim Hulskamp of Kansas, in response to the Congressman's request that Buffett release his full federal tax return amid the national debate over the Obama Administration's "Buffett Rule."

According to CNNMoney, Buffett again offered in the letter to release his full return if other members of the super-rich club, like Rupert Murdoch, do the same:

"If you could get other ultra rich Americans to publish their returns along with mine, that would be very useful to the tax dialogue and intelligent reform."

Answering those who are suggesting he's fudging the figures, he also offers a "pre-release wager" of any amount with anyone, that "the figures in my return will be exactly those used in my op-ed piece."

That's a reference to his "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich" op-ed in the New York Times on August 14, in which he said his federal tax bill last year was $6,923,494, 17.4 percent of his taxable income.

Doing the math on those figures, you can figure out the $39.8 million taxable income.  We didn't know, until now, his AGI.  We also don't know exactly what accounts for the difference between that number and his taxable income.

In his Times piece, Buffett noted he paid a lower tax rate than anyone else in his office, and argued that wealthy Americans who get a lot of their income from capital gains should be paying more.

Current Berkshire stock prices:

Class B:

BRK.B loading...

Quote  |  Chart  |  News  |  Profile

[BRK.B  Loading...      ()   ]

Class A:

BRK.A loading...

Quote  |  Chart  |  News  |  Profile

[BRK.A  Loading...      ()   ]

For more Buffett Watch updates follow alexcrippen on Twitter.

Email comments to