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Shortly after Amazon (AMZN) president and founder Jeff Bezos returned to Earth from space on Tuesday, the billionaire received heavy criticism from progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) contrasting the low tax bills paid by him and Amazon with those borne by ordinary Americans. who “keep this country running”.
The criticism came in response to remarks made by Bezos thanking Amazon customers and employees whose purchases and work “paid for” the space expedition, which was led by another Bezos-backed company, Blue Origin.
In one Tweeter Responding to the remarks, Warren said Bezos, “I forgot to thank all the hard working Americans who actually paid taxes to make this country work when he and Amazon paid nothing.”
U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also responded strongly to Bezos on Twitter.
Many of the country’s wealthiest executives, including Bezos, use legal tax avoidance methods that allow them to pay little or no income taxes in certain years, according to a survey released by ProPublica last month.
The survey calculated a “true tax rate” based on the amount of taxes paid by a billionaire and the amount his wealth increased over a given period. By this measure, from 2014 to 2018, Bezos paid a tax rate of 0.98%, the investigation found.
By comparison, in recent years, the median US household has earned $ 70,000 a year and paid 14% in federal taxes, according to the report.
Along with the low taxes paid by Bezos, tech giant Amazon actually paid no federal income taxes for 2017 and 2018, according to an analysis conducted by the Left Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy in 2019.
The company has seen a slight uptick in recent years, paying $ 162 million in taxes in 2019 and reporting a tax burden of $ 1.8 billion in February, an approximation of its 2020 tax bill, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Warren’s criticism comes as some Democrats in Washington DC seek to raise taxes on corporations and high net worth individuals.
President Joe Biden called on US businesses to pay their “fair share,” referring to his proposed tax hike that would raise the rate for businesses from 21% to 28%. Before a tax overhaul passed under the Trump administration, the corporate tax rate was 35%.
In addition, Biden proposed tax hikes on the wealthy that would raise the top personal income tax rate to 39.6% from 37%, tax capital gains as income. normal for households earning more than $ 1 million and would close the deferred interest loophole.
In March, Biden named Amazon as a company that should pay a higher tax bill. A month later, Bezos said he supported a higher corporate tax rate to pay for Biden’s infrastructure plan.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Warren’s tweet.
In 2019, in response to criticism from then-presidential candidate Biden for his alleged non-payment of taxes, Amazon tweeted, “We pay every penny we owe. Congress designed tax laws to encourage businesses to reinvest in the US economy. We have. . $ 200 billion in investments since 2011 & 300K US jobs. Suppose Vice President Biden’s complaint is about the tax code, not Amazon. “
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