“We support the Biden administration’s focus on bold investments in US infrastructure,” Bezos said. “Both Democrats and Republicans have supported infrastructure in the past, and this is the right time to work together to make it happen. We realize that this investment will require concessions from all sides – both specifically on what is involved and how it is done. be paid for. “
In 2019, then-former vice president Joe Biden
exclaimed Amazon for the history of using tax credits and deductions to reduce the company’s corporate income tax rate. The company shot back, saying ‘We pay every cent we owe’, and that it has paid $ 2.6 billion in corporate taxes since 2016.
Last year, Biden, the then presidential candidate, again said Amazon should ‘start paying taxes’, as part of a broader critique of large, successful businesses. Amazon has repeatedly said it follows all applicable tax laws.
The company also recently swore allegiance to Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is campaigning to raise taxes on big business. Last month, Warren in a
tweet: “Giant corporations like Amazon report huge profits to their shareholders – but they exploit loopholes and tax havens to pay almost nothing in taxes. It’s just not right.”
Amazon responded to her,
say: “You make the tax laws @SenWarren; we just follow them. If you do not keep the laws you created, change them anyway. Here are the facts: Amazon has paid billions of dollars in corporate taxes over the past few years alone. ‘
For fiscal years 2017 and 2018, Amazon’s financial filing showed that it expects to receive money back from the federal government, not that it owes money in income taxes. For the 2019 tax year, Amazon said it owes more than $ 1 billion in federal income taxes, according to experts, meaning just over 1% of its profits.
In 2020, Amazon paid $ 1.7 billion in federal taxes
said in his response to Warren. Its net income for the year was $ 21.3 billion.
Although it has already drawn criticism, the Biden administration’s infrastructure plan may be compelling enough to persuade more corporate leaders to sign up in support of raising business taxes.
Bezos said in a statement: “We look forward to the Congress and the Administration finding the right, balanced solution that maintains or improves American competitiveness.”
And he is not alone. Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income for BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, said that the withdrawal of corporate tax cuts in the Trump era would not hurt the economy – and that it could be positive for growth.
Rieder told CNN Business last month that he thinks the U.S. economy can “definitely” withstand higher corporate taxes, and suggested that raising the corporate rate could help spread economic profits evenly among corporations and workers.
“The U.S. economy is incredibly resilient,” he said, “and will actually perform well if you get a share of this redistribution and consumption in an easier and better place, especially for lower and middle incomes.”
– Brian Fung and Matt Egan from CNN contributed to this report
