Now’s the time for the 1 percenters to fill their boots. World’s richest man Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is worth an estimated $114 billion. Amazon is worth $1 trillion. In 2018, the company reported an income of $11 billion but paid $0 into federal taxes. Jeff Bezos is looking for contributions to a fund he established to help his Amazon contractors in these difficult times.
Please give generously.
Do the people who work at Amazon and own shares in Amazon pay taxes?
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Are the birds in the sky really free?
No, you have to pay for the batteries. Hopefully solar catches up soon.
There’s no single answer to your question. Salaried employees have some taxes deducted from their payroll checks as well as deductions for benefits. Contractors have no benefits and calculate their own taxes. They can deduct business expenses from their gross income. Either can own shares but they are investments and are treated separately.
Sounds like there is a single answer, and it is yes.
No there isn’t. Are you really that thick?
Seems that way
So anyway, yes, it is f’d up that Amazon, one of the 3 largest companies in the world (by market cap), paid ZERO taxes in 2018 (AND 2017 by the way).
I don’t blame them though. Do you pay any more tax than you’re legally required to? I don’t either. The tax code needs to be fixed. Why not a business version of the AMT?
Devil’s advocate’s argument:
look at their share price versus income. ( and 20 years with no profit)
So what would their share price be if based on return of equity…$100?
Thats what QE does for your economy, the richest guy in the world runs a company that makes no money
ops thanks Hawsepiper QE not QA
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QE? (quantitative easing)?
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just imagine what percentage of the workforce works for companies that make no money?
Must be like 25% of young people?
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As mentioned in the Forbes article above, I am ok with giving a tax break (even a BIG tax break) for an American company building plants in America and employing Americans (not non-Americans, legal or illegal). That kind of thing is worth the loss of corporate tax revenue for the resulting jobs and economic activity.
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until the USA is run by 4 corporations that pay no tax…
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Agree. However, if the reason Amazon didn’t pay any income tax on $11.2B in profits (2018) was because they spent $11.2B on DIRECT investment in building things IN AMERICA that resulted in new jobs FOR AMERICANS, then it is worth it.
I’m far from a tax lawyer, but from what I read they didn’t pay taxes due to vague reasons like “various unspecified ‘tax credits’” and (wait for it…) “executive stock options”. Provisions like that must change.
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big issue is also overseas profit is neither taxed at source and the cash is not repatriated to the USA as there are draconian tax laws waiting to eat it up.
Lots of flack from overseas governments but its their laws that need to change to fix that.
If laws change in the USA they might just shift head office and do the same transfer pricing schemes
Agree completely. That’s why a business version of the AMT would be nice. All companies listed on US stock exchanges have to report profit. Tie a minimum tax to that number as a floor of what all businesses above a certain size must pay.
If their lawyers figure a way to get around that (which I’m sure they will), then tie this minimum tax to some other metric to ensure they are all paying a reasonable share.
This will result in some companies opening overseas branches…that’s fine, they are free to do that. FOC for business if you will.
And when they do that, take a page from the Orangeman’s book and tack on huge import tariffs.
Yes, I know that the American buyer gets stuck with the “tariff” tax but if it stops them from buying products from tax evading pseudo American companies it would be a good thing. Screw 'em. When Nikes cost thousands of dollars maybe more money would stay in the 'hood.
Bottom line on all this garbage is campaign finance has to be real. Start with dumping Citizens United and making it a federal felony to donate in cash or kind to any candidate for whom you cannot vote. Corporations are not voters, any contribution from a corporation or PAC is nothing more or less than a bribe. Limit contributions to some figure that the average working American taxpayer might be able to afford.
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Fine as long as I and all US citizens can afford to open overseas branches and not pay taxes. We should get to have our own FOC. Of course then who would pay for the military which everyone loves, FEMA, the Treasury Dept., FBI and all other government services? Why corporations which are not human beings nor citizens get more tax advantages than actual living breathing citizens has never made sense to me but that’s how the people US citizens elect set things up… There are corporations that have paid 0 tax for many years getting ready for billion dollar bailout while the taxpayer will have to make do with their $1200 payment which will likely be taxed.
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