This isn't new. Remember a few years ago GE not only didn't pay taxes but the government ended up paying them money. This is why I've come around to the idea of a flat tax. Our tax code is far too complicated with too many ways to exploit it. Money that should be going to tax coffers is instead being spent on lawyers and accountants to find ways for companies and individuals to avoid paying more in taxes. Simpler tax filings will address that problem and while marginal rates might go down effective tax rates will go up.
No. The point is r****ded. It is the same, "You didn't build that" bullshit that Obama was trotting out years ago. Your post wasn't deep or hard to understand. My response points out that everyone has access to the same things Bezos had access to. Clearly, it was not the mere existence of roads, public education, and the Internet that made him a hundred billionaire, because those same resources were available to everyone. He also couldn't amass those billions without the invention of currency, or the discovery of electricity, or the development of mathematics, or any of a million other things that happened before he sold his first book. So what? TCP/IP was designed in the mid-1970s. Current taxation has nothing to do with it. The Internet has grown far beyond what was first implemented by collaboration between academia and the government, largely because of private corporations like Amazon. Everyone pays into roads and education and the Internet, and Bezos has paid far more into it than most. You know what he would do if there were no publicly funded schools and universities in the United States? He would hire people that went to private schools, or people that went to schools in other countries. So no, his business is not highly dependent on tax revenue. Welcome to Capitalism. He has invested his money wisely in growing a successful business. Good for him. The engineers and laborers are not slaves that he captured and forced to build Amazon for him. They are people that entered into voluntary agreements wherein they are provided with pay and an environment in which their efforts have a tangible result. Amazon and their shareholders and their employees have all paid their fair share. That is why they are not in prison for tax evasion. The reason that Amazon is able to pay such small effective tax rates is because the government wants to use taxation as a lever to affect behavior. That is why there are incentives and deductions and credits and different forms of income. So long as we want to use the tax code as a social engineering tool, it is hardly fair to get mad at the people that allow themselves to be socially engineered to get the tax benefits provided. Looking at the corporate taxes paid by Amazon is also not a complete picture of the tax revenue that the company generates. They also pay state and local taxes, their shareholders pay taxes on any dividends they receive. Anyone that sells their shares at a profit pays capital gains taxes on the sold shares (how the government gets money from the business growing). They pay payroll taxes. They pay salaries and wages to their employees who then pay income and payroll taxes. Finally, the wealthy pay the vast majority of federal income taxes. Looking at 2017 numbers (the most recent I quickly found) the top 10% of earners paid 70.1% of federal income tax paid, while earning 47.7% of the income. The bottom 50% of earners earned 11.3% of the income, but paid 3.1% of the taxes. A significant portion of the population has a negative effective tax rate with the EITC. America is much better off with Amazon than it would be without it.
Yep. I just think people should all follow the same rules and understand those rules. After a healthy standard deductuon, everything should be taxed the same. Income, capital gains, payroll(take the cap off), inheritance aka death tax.
You just spew talking points with no reflection of reality. The market would not be sustained by corporations access to skilled labor only coming from private schools. The vast majority of skilled labor such as engineers, machinists etc come from public schools. Private schools just don't output enough skilled labor to nearly satisfy our gdp out put,not even close. Also: https://theintercept.com/2019/04/13/tax-day-taxes-statistics/ If you think Amazon doesn't heavy really on tax payer funded infrastructure and services you have a basic lack of understanding of their business model and how dependent they are on public infrastructure. Also, your claim that we should blame the people who make the tax system because they believe it's "social engineering" to incentivize growth is exactly what we should do. But the aspect you are missing is the lobbying and the revolving door aspect where companies like Amazon have undue influence in how our tax code is written. And the whole concept of social engineering and incentivizing growth through the tax code and its benefits trickling down to society is pure hog wash. Increased productivity of corporations has done jack **** for the working class over the past 50 years. Here's an example of how increased productivity of corporations has done nothing for our poorest: And we can see this not just with minimum wage workers. For the working middle class, for the past 50 years, rent, home ownership costs, healthcare education etc have greatly outpaced wage growth.
On principle I don't begrudge Jeff Bezos becoming the richest person in the World and as an Amazon Prime subscriber I have no problem giving him more of my money for faster delivery service and entertainment. Amazon isn't exactly a force for good but I don't think they are a force for evil either and I'm pretty uncomfortable with rhetoric such as "billionaires shouldn't exist." That said there are issues of things like commons and infrastructure that need to be maintained and improved. While yes Bezos came up with a good idea that he executed well, managed very well and as such turned a humble bookstore into a behemoth. As such he's not only made himself unbelievably wealthy he also generated a lot of wealth for many others. He's also willing to invest his money in other ventures that could have long term benefit. None of that would've been possible without work that had been done by DARPA and other public entities. The inequalities created by the wealth of Amazon and other companies is becoming a big burden on many communities where property prices are being driven up while tax revenues are unable to keep up with growth or improved social services. This is leading to the situation we see in the Bay Area, Seattle area and now in Austin where the median wealth and property value is skyrocketing many people who work service industries are being priced out, education isn't improving or infrastructure. Form what little I know of Bezos he himself understands this and has made huge charitable contributions to things like education that said I don't think we can or should count on wealthy benefactors to fund our education. Further as we've seen with the power failures in CA in the early 2000's and most recently in TX leaving much of infrastructure to private management can lead to other problems. A thriving modern economy still needs good infrastructure and a source of good skilled educated labor. If you look at the success of Singapore and other of the Asian Tigers that is a recipe that works.
Are you kidding? Have you never heard the term sin tax? Never heard of Democrats wanting to raise taxes on gasoline to try to drive down fuel consumption? Tax credits for children? Joint returns for married couples? The tax code has been used as incentive and disincentive for a long, long time. Are you working off of some list of talking points? I am talking about reality as it exists. Maybe that is the disconnect.
Yes I have heared the term sin tax but nobody is talking about a sin tax and its not social engineering. If you think the only reason for fuel tax is to drive down fuel consumption you are more daffy than I thoiught, how do you think roads are funded. Why do you single out democrats? https://apnews.com/article/ee2dfef46f0644bbab5ccc7866f98c62 https://www.mcclatchydc.com/latest-news/article229287359.html https://mississippitoday.org/2021/0...aising-gas-tax-for-designated-roads-projects/ You are just bonkers my guy stop with the propaganda.
Yes really. Amazing that you don't know that warren's "loopholes" are just deductibles/credits put in by legislators to drive behavior. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tax-benefit.asp
So what? Then he didn't build it..... Bezos paid far more into than most because he has received the most benefit... He needs to pay more or Amazon needs to pay more (I prefer the former). It's pretty simple how civilization works... no man is an island despite how many boot straps or whatever. Then how do you explain the corporate lobbying system? I kinda think businesses just naturally want to pay a little as tax as possible..... That's not necessarily bad in itself, but there's a personal wealthy lobbying system too..... Again, one of them needs to give. I prefer businesses pay less and wealthy individuals/families pay more. You're right. They play municipalities and counties are one another in order to get even lower state, county, municipal tax rates. I get it though, that's just how it is. Pretty basic..... a tax system based on income will be overwhelmingly paid for by those with the highest incomes.... Likewise a wealth tax would collect revenue overwhelming from the wealthy. America is better off taxing wealth like it used while keeping corporate taxes low.
Let's not be naïve here..... Lobbying groups exist to drive a lot of behavior in favor of the business/shareholders interest.
Yawn. Libertarian/GOP bullsh!t is tiresome. Let me know when you have something workable to talk about.
Since even @Senator didn't watch the video he shared properly, I think it's worth unpacking what the different characters in the OP actually said so we have some common understanding. There's also dissonance between what warren says in video and in tweet, Amazon's tweet doesn't disagree with what is said in video, it takes issue with the characterization in the text of her tweet @Senator: amazon's revenue is $400bn and profit is $155bn, wants to take $ directly from bezos to erase debt Warren in video: Amazon 2020 profit was $20bn but only paid effective tax rate of 4.3%. Tax benefits are technical terms for "loopholes". Flat tax more effective, wants new tax legislation for companies earning above $100m. Closing individual loopholes too hard. Dr Clausing: amazon's behavior isn't unique and in fact very common. Warren in tweet: giant companies like Amazon pay close to nothing in taxes due to loopholes, will make new legislation to make most profitable companies pay fair share. Amazon: senators make the tax laws (including tax benefits) and we just follow them. By all means, senators can go ahead and change the laws, if they no longer believe in laws they created in the past. Fact: Amazon has paid billions in taxes in the past.
I agree they lobby, but Politicians are the ones voting on laws, not lobbyists. Companies are accountable to shareholders, politicians to voters. Politicians should be held responsible if they are putting their donors interests above their constituents.
