Microsoft founder too rich for tax computer to handle

Lisbon - Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man, said the tax office in the U.S. has to store his financial data on a special computer because his fortune is so vast.

"My tax return in the United States has to be kept on a special computer because their normal computers can't deal with the numbers," he said at a Microsoft conference held in Lisbon.

"So I am constantly getting these notices telling me I haven't paid something when really it is just on the wrong computer," he added in comments broadcast on television.

"Then they will send me another notice telling me how bad they feel they that they sent me a notice that was a mistake," he said

Gates's fortune is put at 47 billion dollars (38.9 billion euros), according to the latest list of the world's rich published by Forbes magazine.

Last month Time magazine named Gates and his wife Melinda, along with rock star Bono, its "Persons of the Year" for 2005, citing their charitable work and activism aimed at reducing global poverty and improving world health.

The couple's Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a 29 billion dollar endowment making it the world's biggest charity. -- Agence France Presse

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