Billionaire Warren Buffett has his fair share of critics and detractors, a number of them probably reacting out of jealousy of his rousing successes and his growing fortune. All the while, he maintains a level head and offers good advice about life in general as well as about financial matters.

Buffett thinks our tax structure is way out of whack and that the laws should be changed to affect the richest, such as Buffett, and benefit the less-wealthy among us. He points out that the current tax laws allow him to pay lower income tax rates than all of the employees in his home office in Omaha. He thinks that should be changed and admits that a little “soak the rich” might be in order.

It should be noted that Buffett gives enormous amounts of money to important projects. Recently, he turned over something like $37 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help the world’s needy.

But Buffett’s main focus in discussing taxes is fear that the current structure is leaning toward wiping out our vital middle class. He makes it clear that those earning more than $250,000 a year should pay a lot more taxes than they do to be in line with the $50,000-types who pay a bigger percentage of their incomes.

From time to time, Buffett even suggests a flat tax, which would do away with most exemptions and could be more fair. It is worth a hard look.

But Buffett may be out of line in his bid to get Congress to keep the current estate tax rather than repeal it to benefit a few rich Americans like himself. “I think we need to : take a little more hides of guys like me,” Buffett told a Washington panel. He long has been outspoken against efforts, mostly by Republicans, to repeal or reduce the federal tax on inheritances. Democrats argue that a repeal would amount to a huge windfall for the nation’s wealthiest families.

It does not in fact work out quite like that.

American estates worth up to $2 million this year and next will be exempt from the federal estate tax. Portions of estates above that level will be taxed at 45 percent. Unless Congress changes the law, it comes back in 2011 with an exemption level of only $1 million and a top tax rate of 55 percent. Buffett says inheritance taxes preserve a measure of meritocracy, and with it opportunity, by recycling portions of great wealth through public coffers.

However, those who want to repeal the tax say it is particularly hard on small farms and businesses whose heirs may have to liquidate assets to pay the levies. “Instead of the free market determining when assets are bought or sold, the death tax makes that determination,” says Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who favors the repeal. “There is something fundamentally wrong when the government swoops in after a funeral to take a cut of what that person has worked a whole life for, and has already paid taxes on at least once.”

Buffett often is right, but in this case we should take into account farmers and businesses that are wrecked by the ravages of the inheritance tax. They should be helped rather than crippled, as Buffett’s plan tends to do.