Source: J.Emilio Flores / Getty
The rich just keep on getting richer in the United States and the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos CEO of Amazon is the perfect example of that. In 2017 his company pulled in $5.6 billion in profits and according to reports he paid a big fat GOOSE EGG in federal taxes on it.
Oh, and his company is also about to pull in a whopping $789 million in tax windfall thanks to Donald Trump and his merry band of Republican’s tax scheme bill. How is this even possible you ask?Isn’t this is illegal? Well according to the Institute of Taxation and Finance they believe that windfall of money is one of the factors in the company withholding taxes this year. Another interesting tidbit is the fact Amazon’s Global Headquarters is not even in the states but in Luxembourg which has been accused by the European Union for handing out illegal tax breaks. Amazon is one of the recipients of this break, the EU has ordered Luxembourg to recover $295 million from the tech giant.
Bezos’ desire to not pay taxes or for tax breaks go back to 1996 when he tried to build Amazon’s U.S. headquarters on Native American reservation near San Fransico cause it offered a tax break. California spotted the jig and shut the deal down and rightfully so. Amazon is currently looking for a new home in the U.S. for its second HQ and currently has states doing their best dog and pony show to lure Amazon.
Bezos calls himself a liberal who doesn’t agree with Trump and most of his policies but he sure does take advantage of various tax loopholes and reaping the benefits of Trump’s Tax Cuts. Unlike other insanely wealthy individuals such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who have come out against the cuts and are very generous with their money, the same can’t be said about Bezos even though he has made some feeble attempts at philanthropy. He even went as far as to ask his Twitter followers for help figuring out a way he can give back.
Well, we know a few things he can do, pay his taxes, build that new plant in the states and pay all of his workers a decent wage is a good place to start.
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Photo by J. Emilio Flores/Corbis via Getty Images
