Newsweek: Trump, Who Just Gave Amazon a Huge Tax Break, Wants the Company Taxed

Noticeably absent from Trump’s critique of the company’s tax payments was its treatment under federal tax law. Amazon, which is currently valued at $673 billion, paid zero federal taxes in 2017 despite earning $5.6 billion in U.S. profits, according to an analysis of Amazon’s latest annual report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s Matthew Gardner. The amount of money the company owes the federal government is expected to fall below zero, thanks to a 40 percent reduction in the top corporate tax rate that Republicans passed last year. This means Amazon could actually receive a tax refund from the government moving forward.

“That could happen for the same kind of reasons that it happens on the individual side,” Gardner told Newsweek on Thursday. “There are tax credits and deductions you can get even if your tax bill has gone down to zero to begin with.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An Amazon spokesperson told Newsweek the company was in full compliance with all tax laws worldwide. Read more

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