While, we would all like more money in our pockets, taxes are necessary to keep our government and society functioning.

They fund our public schools, our roads and other essential services.

But in recent years, billionaires have found ways to pay less and less.

How did we get here?

The federal government gets the majority of its funding from individual income tax.

According to a recent study.

Individual tax rates for people in the bottom 90% of earners have increased by about 10%, whereas the wealthiest families have seen a 40% decrease by 2018, their rates were lower than all other income levels.

In addition to this, you may have heard that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos didn't pay any federal income taxes in 2011.

And he's not alone.

Fellow billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have paid next to nothing in income taxes to make such low tax rates possible.

The top 1% of earners must employ strategies that lower their income while raising their wealth.

While Bezos was still the CEO of Amazon.

He had a seemingly modest salary of about $80,000 a year, and Musk decided not to have a salary at all.

Instead, they paid themselves in stock rewards.

The difference between a salary and stock rewards is key because while salaries are taxed, stocks are not.

Until they are sold.

The trick here is that they don't sell these stocks at all, but use them as collateral in order to get loans from banks since they are wealthy.

Banks see little risk in loaning to these billionaires.

This trust means they are awarded low interest rates on any loan they take out.

When it comes time to make payments, they can then take out another loan.

This cycle continues endlessly, as long as their investments make more money than their interest rates class them.

This allows a transfer of wealth without incurring a capital gains tax from selling the stocks directly.

The morbid conclusion to this tax avoiding strategy is actually death.

When Bezos passes away, his assets will be handed off to the next generation, as specified in his will.

Under the current tax code, the stocks that are passed on are converted to their current market value, rather than the price originally paid for them.

This means they can now be sold without having to pay capital gains tax.

This is a common wealth building strategy called buy, borrow and die.

Another strategy is to make sure everything is a business expense, so you can write these expenses off on your taxes.

Private jets and yachts can be rented and golf courses can be open to the public.

The more you recreation can be considered a business expense, the less you pay.

Finally, there's charity.

Giving to charity not only increases your standing among the community, but also lowers your income.

Plus, you get a large tax rather for the amount donated.

Charity is an agile way to manipulate income levels.

Just in case you made a bit too much money, while you and I will pay our fair share to the IRS this tax season.

Now you know how the top 1% will save their money yet again.

What do you think?

Should billionaires pay more?