What is the word length of the computer that the IRS use for Bill Gates' taxes?

According to Microsoft founder too rich for tax computer to handle, IRS need to use a special computer to store and manage Bill Gates’ tax return.

Given that Bill Gates’ fortune is now $47×109, how many bits are needed to represent it?
Dollars: 47×109 = 0xAF16B1600 i.e. 36 bits (not including the sign bit).
Cents: 47×1011 = 0x4464DD49800 i.e. 43 bits (not including the sign bit).

Maximum fortune which can be represented in 31 bits (signed) and 32 bits (unsigned):
231-1 cents: $21,474,836.47 or $21 million
232-1 cents: $42,949,672.95 or $42 million

If only dollars are represented, then billionaires can be accommodated ($2,147 millions in 31 bits, $4,295 millions in 32 bits).
Thus, if IRS ignore cents, they need the special computer to manage tax returns of several of the billionaires having tax relationships with USA. So Bill Gates probably is not the only one, whose taxes require the IRS to use a special computer.

Author: Omer Zak

I am deaf since birth. I played with big computers which eat punched cards and spew out printouts since age 12. Ever since they became available, I work and play with desktop size computers which eat keyboard keypresses and spew out display pixels. Among other things, I developed software which helped the deaf in Israel use the telephone network, by means of home computers equipped with modems. Several years later, I developed Hebrew localizations for some cellular phones, which helped the deaf in Israel utilize the cellular phone networks. I am interested in entrepreneurship, Science Fiction and making the world more accessible to people with disabilities.