Amazon paid zero federal income taxes in 2018 despite earning $11.2 billion in profits, The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported.
Amazon paid nothing in federal income taxes for the second consecutive year in 2018, despite doubling its profits from 2017.
Rather than pay the 21 percent rate on its income in the US, ITEP reported, Amazon reported a federal income tax rebate of $129 million -- “that works out to a tax rate of negative 1 percent.”
The company was able to reduce its tax bill to the negatives due to unspecified “tax credits” and tax breaks for executive stock options, ITEP reported.
Last year the $793 billion company run by the richest man in the world used the same loopholes to avoid paying any federal income tax on some $5.6 billion in profits.
Between 2011 and 2016, Amazon paid an average of 11.4 percent in income taxes, less than a third of the 35 percent rate that was in place at the time, before Trump and Republican lawmakers slashed it to 21, The Week reported.
Washington state has no income tax, so the Seattle-based company has not paid any state income taxes either.
Bernie Sanders sounds the alarm:
“Amazon made $16.8 billion in profits over the past two years but have paid ZERO in federal income taxes. In fact it got a $269 million tax refund,” the Vermont Democratic-Socialist tweeted Wednesday. “Our job: Demand large corporations pay their fair share in taxes so that we can rebuild the disappearing middle class.”
Sanders has introduced the Stop BEZOS Act that would tax companies like Amazon and Walmart whose employees are so low-paid that they require food stamps and public assistance.
The bill would tax those companies for the cost of their employees’ public assistance benefits.
“The bill’s text characterizes this as a ‘corporate welfare tax,’ and it would apply to corporations with 500 or more employees,” The Verge reported. “If workers are receiving government aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), national school lunch and breakfast programs, Section 8 housing subsidies, or Medicaid, employers will be taxed for the total cost of those benefits. The bill applies to full-time and part-time employees, as well as independent contractors that are de facto company employees.”
