Berkshire Hathaway Net Earnings

Net Earnings of Berkshire Hathaway 1999-2017

The following table shows the net earnings of Berkshire Hathaway from 1999-2017. The sums are in million dollars.

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Berkshire hathaway Inc. is a holding company that owns several subsidiaries engaged in a  variety of businesses. Most important among these are insurance business, freight rail transportation business and a group of utility and energy generation and distribution businesses. Berkshire also owns and operates a large number of other businesses apart from these. These businesses operate independently or on a decentralized basis which means no central HR, marketing or finance function. However, the top management participates in resource allocation, investment and selection of CEOs for each of the businesses.

The net earnings of Berkshire Hathaway jumped to $44.94 Billions rising from 24 Billion dollars previous year. However, to a large extent, it was the TCJA that  was responsible for the increase in net earnings of Berkshire Hathaway. Before TCJA arrived in December Berkshire had been expecting taxes at the corporate rate of 35%. Arrival of the new law changed it to 21%. This is how Berkshire managed to save around 29 billion dollars which went into its gains for the year.

Sources:

Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report

https://fortune.com/2018/02/24/berkshire-hathaway-warren-buffett-29-billion-new-tax-law/