Thiel Gets Tax Edge With $5 Billion in Roth IRA, ProPublica Says

Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of Paypal Holdings Inc. and a vocal opponent of higher taxes, had amassed $5 billion in a tax-free Roth individual retirement account by 2019, ProPublica reported, citing confidential Internal Revenue Service records.

Investment gains in Roth IRAs are never taxed, and the accounts are subject to contribution and income rules designed to limit them to middle-class taxpayers. In 1999, when Americans could contribute at most $2,000 per year to Roth IRAs, Thiel placed into the account 1.7 million shares of then-private PayPal, which were valued at just $0.001 per share.

Peter Thiel

Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

Within a year, ...