“We support the Biden administration’s focus on bold investment in US infrastructure,” Bezos said. “Both Democrats and Republicans have supported the infrastructure in the past, and it is time to work together to make it happen. We recognize that this investment will require concessions from all sides – both in terms of the specifics of what is included and how it is paid. for.”
In 2019, the then former vice president, Joe Biden
called out Amazon for the history of using tax credits and deductions to reduce the corporate tax bill. The company denied, saying, “We pay every penny we owe,” and that it has paid $ 2.6 billion in corporate taxes since 2016.
And again last year, then-presidential candidate Biden said Amazon should “start paying its taxes” as part of a broader critique of big, successful businesses. Amazon has repeatedly said it complies with all applicable tax laws.
The company recently fought with Senator Elizabeth Warren, who advocated raising taxes on large corporations. Last month Warren said in a
tweet: “Giant corporations like Amazon report huge profits to their shareholders – but exploit gaps and tax havens to pay almost nothing in taxes. It’s not fair.”
Amazon replied,
saying: “Make tax laws @SenWarren; we just follow them. If you don’t like the laws you created, definitely change them. Here are the facts: Amazon has paid billions of dollars in corporate taxes over the last few years alone.”
For fiscal years 2017 and 2018, Amazon’s financial documents showed that it expected to receive money back from the federal government, not that it owed income tax money. For fiscal year 2019, Amazon said it owes more than $ 1 billion in federal income tax, a figure experts say represents just over 1 percent of its profits.
In 2020, Amazon paid $ 1.7 billion in federal taxes
SAPS in his reply to Warren. Net income for the year was $ 21.3 billion.
Although it has already been criticized, the Biden administration’s infrastructure plan may be convincing enough to persuade more corporate leaders to support business taxes.
Bezos said in his statement: “We look forward to Congress and the Administration coming together to find the right and balanced solution to maintain or enhance US competitiveness.”
And he is not alone. Rick Rieder, director of global fixed income investment at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, said the Trump-era corporate tax cut won’t hurt the economy – and could actually be positive for growth.
Rieder told CNN Business last month that he believes the US economy can “definitely” withstand higher corporate taxes and suggested that raising the corporate rate could help ensure a more even distribution of profits between corporations and workers.
“The US economy is amazingly resilient,” he said, “and it will actually work well when you get some of that redistribution of revenue and consumption into an easier and better place, especially for low-income and medium. “
Brian Fung and Matt Egan contributed to this report
