Politifact: Bernie Sanders Says Amazon Paid no Federal Income Tax in 2017. He’s Right

The trick for companies? They get to write off the value at which the stock was later traded, not the original price for which they sold their stock to employees.

“Even if the grant was pennies on the dollar, the companies get to write off the full market value,” said Matt Gardner, senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

This year was the first time Amazon didn’t pay anything in federal income taxes. Gardner attributed that to executives cashing out on stocks they had been sitting on for a while. Read more

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