It was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, the richest man on the planet. Bezos had read, back then, that the Internet was one big thing and growing tremendously. So wanted to get on that wave. It started as a company that sold books, just books. Now, what doesn’t he sell?
The information is a little mixed. On the one hand, they say that yes, they do. As they stated in a blog on their website, they say they paid, in 2019, 2.4 billion in federal taxes and 1.6 billion in state and local taxes. On that blog post, they say they do more than just that. For example, they say that since 2010, they’ve invested more than 350 billion dollars in corporate offices, customer fulfillment and cloud infrastructure, wind and solar farms, eco-friendly equipment and machinery, and more. Also, they state that they have created more than 800,000 jobs in the United States alone, across 40 states. They are the second-largest contractor in the world, only behind Walmart, but they are the fastest-growing. Hence, they do their part, right? They take and they give back. Not so fast. Let’s take a look at more information.
But what about the years before that?
So, do they pay taxes? Eventually, they did, but after some years of not paying at all, as you can see. Pressure does work even in the biggest of companies. They are almighty, but they can succumb to pressure, just like everybody.
However, all of them said the contrary. These six companies state that they pay what they owe in every market they operate, although the numbers and the information say otherwise. But they are not just too big to fail, they are too big to make them do anything. Or would you go into a fight with Facebook or Microsoft?
Should they pay taxes?
Some say that if a company is big enough, that drives the economy forward and should not pay taxes. That is because they generate wealth in other ways. That is, by creating jobs and investing in buildings and stuff, so, on top of all this, they pay taxes too!? No way, some people say. But, as all things human, there is a counter opinion to this. They say that we all must pay our fair share to carry this society forward. And that is, they are the wealthiest of them all, and taxes are a way of improving our community. What do you think?
The rest of the world
The same happened in the United Kingdom. With Starbuck and Google, they are also being investigated for tax-avoiding.
So, it happens everywhere. In México, new legislation was created to make companies like Airbnb and Uber pay taxes. Of course, these companies are not near as big as the big six. But the point here is that some effort is being made to tax these new digital companies.
Conclusion
How come billionaires don’t pay taxes?
They do it, by giving themselves a very little salary while growing enormous fortunes in stocks and other assets.
Can I not pay taxes?
You can lower your taxes by investing more in a retirement savings plan, healthcare, and child care.
