Amazon.com, tax dodgers

This video from the USA says about itself:

You Won’t Believe How Much Taxes Amazon Paid Last Year

3 March 2018

Guess how much Amazon paid in taxes? Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, the hosts of The Young Turks, have the answer. Get money out of politics: here.

“Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world, with a personal net worth of $108 billion. In 2017, Bezos’ company, the internet retail giant Amazon, reportedly took in $5.6 billion in U.S. profits.

So, how much did Amazon pay in income tax on that bounty? Hang on, we’re getting some news…what? What’s this? Amazon effectively paid zero dollars in federal income taxes in 2017? Oh.

Amazon is projecting a $789 million windfall from the Republicans’ tax bill, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which may have factored into its reason for withholding taxes this year. Bezos—like many other nominally liberal capitalists—claims to disagree with Donald Trump’s policies, while quietly lapping up the Republicans’ regressive tax breaks.

You may be asking: How is this legal? Isn’t Amazon an American company? Aren’t companies required to pay federal income tax? Hello?

Amazon’s global headquarters is not in Seattle, but in the tiny landlocked nation of Luxembourg (Amazon employs more than 40,000 people in Seattle, compared to 1,500 people in Luxembourg). The European Union has accused Luxembourg of giving illegal tax breaks to Amazon and has ordered the country to recover $295 million in back taxes from Amazon.”

Read more here.

Turns out the median salary at Amazon is $28,000 a year.

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