New Republic: Has Amazon Become Too Big to Tax

Earlier this week, Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported that Amazon, which recorded $5.6 billion in profits in 2017, paid zero in federal taxes, thanks to “various tax credits and tax breaks for executive stock options.” That’s remarkable in isolation, but especially remarkable when you consider that Donald Trump’s corporate tax bill hadn’t even gone into effect; Amazon projects it will get an additional $789 million in benefits from the passage of that bill. And it’s even more remarkable given that Amazon was already paying a much lower rate than other companies. The tax bill may have cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent, but Amazon had paid only an 11 percent rate over the previous five years, meaning that “the company was able to shelter more than two-thirds of its profits from tax during that five-year period,” Gardner wrote. Read more

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