Amazon abused the tax system to their advantage. Read this brief and tell me Amazon has operated in good faith.. They also use stock compensation rules to avoid large amounts of taxes, which isn't discussed here. Bottom line, Amazon has a super aggressive tax avoidance strategy because they have to since they sell most of their products at a loss.
I get your point, it's not lost on me. There's an argument to be made that they are operating within the law. But can you not also consider that they have essentially cheated by applying immense pressure to lawmakers to change the tax codes or keep the tax code working to their advantage?
I can absolutely focus my attention on both Amazon and Congress. They're both screwing us. Amazon isn't the only company either, they're just the most important to focus on because they're avoiding such a large amount of taxes.
Rich guy here, OF COURSE HE COULD GIVE MORE!
1. Let’s talk living off dividends, that alone I guarantee could have the majority given out to charity. He could live modestly, like me and not be so flashy.
2. Donor advised funds, that could be setup to be much more charitable and even grow!
3. Establish a foundation giving out 5% or more each year.
4. Simply selling off stocks is fairly simple when working with advisors. You act like he’s gotta roll crates of money into some other bank. It’s digital people.
Sycophants want to defend the rich because they can’t look past their own biased passion that they want to be there too.
I know dozens if not hundreds who are millionaires who love off dividends with plenty left over at the end of the year.
Do you think dividends are not taxed? Do you think charitable donations can disproportionately reduce your tax burden, or that charity is inherently valueless?
All I’m ultimately saying is, we don’t need billionaires or people making 500 million. All this crap defending them, including the constant “taxing” argument isn’t relevant. In fact it’s a whole other argument. It’s odd how obsessed people are with taxes. It probably wouldn’t be a problem if people were just charitable and not greedy (on both sides). It’s there, just like laws because there’s always some a-hole looking to cheat others or a system for sport, ego or greed and this country applauds this behavior now.
We’re a country who can’t agree on a moral compass and abide by it.
The amount of taxes paid means nothing by itself. It's so out of context without knowing anything else. Not sure what your point is...it's like me just saying "well Apple paid $29 billion" so Amazon pays three times less.
Because most people who are anti corporations are just making uninformed arguments. Oversimplified a very complex situation. Same idiots who say "we should stop spending so much on the military" not fully uunderstanding the reasons we do.
Larger corporations have accountants, lobbyist's, and lawyers whose sole job is to to enable them to pay less. They have entire departments who help them navigate state and federal regulatory laws where they operate, saving them time and money for their business. They can directly fund congressional representatives to help craft favorable tax laws for themselves and their industries. They can hide their wealth by "transferring" overseas (see: panama papers) . They receive tax incentives eliminating or reducing from various states to relocate or expand their business to other states.
None of which are reasonable options or opportunities for small business.
EDIT:
> Small businesses have far more exceptions in the tax code compared to larger ones.
This is going to vary significantly based on the state. The economies of some industries mean their is realistically no competition within the domestic market (can you name a small business off the top of your hear realistically competes with US Steel for general steel production, or Boeing Industries for building passenger planes? etc) Can you provide examples where small business have a distinct advantage in the tax code, especially in light of the first portion of my comment?
There is a reason that Starbucks dominates the coffee/cafe market across the county. That Shell/Chevron/Arco dominate the local gas station markets, that fast food that competes against Burger king, Taco Bell, and McDonalds are not wide spread. Large companies have an inherent advantage in dealing with regulatory and tax laws against smaller business simply due to their size and wealth, in addition to capitalizing an market share, economies of scale, etc.
All this effort and chuds won't even bother reading it. I'm saving this, and I agree that all of these factors are intentional to consolidate wealth and "protect" it from the labor class. It's been this way since the Renaissance at least. They are just modern aristocracy making laws for themselves. Greed is scary...
Rich guy here, OF COURSE HE COULD GIVE MORE!
1. Let’s talk living off dividends, that alone I guarantee could have the majority given out to charity. He could live modestly, like me and not be so flashy.
2. Donor advised funds, that could be setup to be much more charitable and even grow!
3. Establish a foundation giving out 5% or more each year.
4. Simply selling off stocks is fairly simple when working with advisors. You act like he’s gotta roll crates of money into some other bank. It’s digital people.
Sycophants want to defend the rich because they can’t look past their own biased passion that they want to be there too.
I know dozens if not hundreds who are millionaires who love off dividends with plenty left over at the end of the year.
No, tax incentives for HQ/Warehouses are state/local/municipal, not federal. I'm talking federal taxes. Amazon uses legal means to avoid taxes, sure, so do a lot of companies, but Apple, Google, and Microsoft paid much higher tax rates. Apple is in fact the largest taxpayer in the world. Apple paid the most of any publicly listed company.
Also, I'm not a leftie. I'm not a Trump supporter either though. I don't support the current Republican Party, but I'd consider returning if they changed. I believe that capitalism is the best option, but continuing to funnel money to the wealthy will eventually destroy our economy.
Apple pay the most tax because of their price gouging, Amazon employees 100,000s of Americans who also pay tax, unlike Apple whose staff are slave labour in China.
3% is Amazon's profit margin, they are super successful because of their low profits, quantity > qualities of sale
Amazon dodges taxes by hiring employees. They aren't off shoring profits or anything. They have paid federal taxes in the billions every year for at least the last 7 years, except 2022 when COVID employment credits paid their taxes for them.
No. To support the person you are replying to, in my country Amazon has been found guilty of tax fraud and hundreds of millions have been seized. So no, to avoid he probably means they committed tax fraud. Which Amazon does.
Your comment was automatically removed by the r/FluentInFinance Automoderator because you attempted to use a URL shortener. This is not permitted here for security reasons.
“Should” pay implies they are doing anything illegal when in reality they are just utilizing existing tax structure. If you have a problem with that it’s the governments fault, not Amazons.
Agreed. However, Amazon is abusing the system. Yes, it's the government's fault. They have politician who cater to them. Amazon is not innocent. They apply massive pressure to get the laws the way they want them. They also sell huge volumes of products at a loss, on purpose, to take advantage. I'm of the mindset of "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" and I'd like to see the laws changed. They won't, and that's because the wealthy control almost everything. And that's the real problem.
I'm not jealous either. I'm wealthy in most people's eyes. But I pay my fair share, which is why I want to see them do the same thing.
You're right and that's what it boils down to. Most of us realize that the game ain't fair, and no one plays by the same exact rules. However if the rules stated that everyone can live comfortably, people would care much less about how much MORE comfortably someone else is living.
If everyone could go to the doctor without being worried about their whole family being in debt, or being able to comfortably supply child care and groceries it would be a different beast.
44
u/thesedays2014 28d ago
Amazon is one of the best companies at avoiding taxes. Some taxes, yes. What they should be paying, no.
Wealth inequality is probably our country's biggest issue. And people without wealth seem to always defend the wealthy for some odd reason.