Jeff Bezos endorsed corporate tax hikes. Here’s why Amazon’s support should be a giant red flag

Foundation for Economic Education via NOQ Report ^ | 04/10/2021 | Brad Polumbo

[SeekAndFind]

The Biden administration and some (but not all) of their Democratic allies in Congress want to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent. They say this would help the working class and hurt Big Business, finally making corporations “pay their fair share.” But if that were true, giant corporations like Amazon wouldn’t be endorsing the change.

Yet that’s exactly what Jeff Bezos just did.

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A message from Jeff Bezos. https://t.co/ZAcpnaRu6z

pic.twitter.com/81AkgVyQke

— Amazon News (@amazonnews) April 6, 2021

“We support the Biden Administration’s focus on making bold investments in American infrastructure,” the Amazon CEO wrote in a public statement. “We recognize this investment will require concessions from all sides—both on the specifics of what’s included as well as how it gets paid for… we’re supportive of a rise in the corporate tax rate.” (Emphasis mine).

Amazon has also lobbied aggressively for other big-government policies like a $15 federal minimum wage. At first glance, this might seem like an endorsement of the policies: see, they wouldn’t be so bad for business after all. Yet it’s actually a giant red flag.

When Big Business comes together to collude with Big Government, it usually means everyday people are about to get ripped off.

When CEOs and politicians are able to agree on seemingly anti-business policies, it’s often because they know the government roadblocks instituted will entrench their market dominance and ultimately redound to the C Suite’s benefit. Amazon knows it can weather the storm of higher corporate taxes (right now it pays very little in corporate tax because it exploits tax breaks) but many of its smaller competitors cannot. Meanwhile, Bezos also knows that his company can afford armies of tax experts, accountants, and lawyers to exploit every loophole to minimize the damage; a luxury many less-dominant rivals won’t have.

And, most importantly, a wealth of economic research shows that workers and consumers really bear the majority of the costs of corporate taxes through lower wages and higher prices.

“The elementary fact is that ‘business’ does not and cannot pay taxes,” Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once explained. “Only people can pay taxes. Corporate officials may sign the check, but the money that they forward to Internal Revenue comes from the corporation’s employees, customers or stockholders.”

More specifically, a study by the Tax Foundation found that Biden’s proposed corporate tax hike would shrink the overall size of the economy, reduce wages, and eliminate 159,000 jobs.

Of course, Bezos would hardly notice a blip in his bank account. The workers left unemployed would have a different experience.

Amazon is not truly altruistic or “woke.” The company knows that the costs of proposed corporate tax hikes would mostly fall on workers and hurt smaller retail competitors. Amazon just hopes that you don’t know that—and that Americans mistake its cronyism for altruism.

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[rdl6989]

Bezos is evil.

[TribalPrincess2U]

He and Suckerborg look like aliens from Mars.

[qaz123]

I do not pretend to know everything about our ridiculous tax laws, I do understand the basic concept of overhead, deductions, write-offs and how they’re used to reduce tax liability.

I also fully understand how a company like Amazon writes off EVERYTHING, down to the last rubberband, to avoid paying taxes.

Shame that so many, especially so many on the Left don’t have even a basic understanding of it and how Amazon will use these I teases to destroy even more of their competition and still not pay anymore in taxes.

And if you try to explain this to one they look at you with bewilderment and will likely say something like...... that’s not true.

[boycott]

THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN:

How to Stick it to Leftist Billionaires without Crushing the Little Guy

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/04/how_to_stick_it_to_leftist_billionaires_without_crushing_the_little_guy.html

[campaignPete R-CT]

Tax the revenue, not the profit

[boycott]

Bezos is evil.

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Yes he is. I remember reading an article years ago of how he was investing in technology that would help him live forever. Unfortunately for him, I am betting he won’t.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

Jeff Bezos reminds me of Lex Luther from the first Superman movie.

Can’t stand the SOB.

[arthurus]

I don’t think Amazn has paid any income tax yet and likely won’ pay any when the democrats raise the rates. Bezos is not terribly self-sacrificing here.

[napscoordinator]

Why can’t a republican, any republican, remind Bezo that he can write a check to the department of treasury every day if he wants. Of course, he’d never do this. It’s all theater. 28 percent tax will still clear him of paying taxes. It’s one more warehouse built somewhere that can be deducted.

[USCG SimTech]

Corporation have never, will never pay one cent of any taxes, state, local or federal. The money comes from the customer of a companies products or services. Not just the taxes but all company income is from the customer. It’s adjusted to keep the company in the black, passed along to the customer.

[USCG SimTech]

Tax the revenue, not the profit

Tax the annual net worth (confiscation) and their tune totally changes

[SunkenCiv]

Bezos isn't a moron. He knows tax hikes are going to come, so he sides with Biden rather than the socialist c-words who thinks Amazon should exist for the benefit of the political class.

The Demagogic Party is a collection of violent, rival street gangs. And politics is always and only about power.

[Paleo Pete]

Bezos knows quite well this will make no difference at all, his company will still pay no taxes. Any they do pay will be passed on to the customer in the form of higher prices. Same thing that happenes when gas goes up and delivery costs more. You’re seeing it at the grocery store right now.

The only ones that will be hurt by biden’s handlers and their higher taxes are the small businesses.

What most people fail to realize is that any company that is...INCORPORATED...must pay corporate taxes. That includes the small local hardware store that is a mom and pop outfit but INCORPORATED. The local franchises that are all INCORPORATED. Even if they only have less than a dozen employees, the increase in corporate tax will hurt them, not the huge multinational corporations like Amazon that can and do write off everything, right down to the last rubber band.

I worked for one a few years ago, local guy with a small business, who tried to get me to give him my gas receipts so he could use them to write off HIS taxes. I told him NOPE, they go in MY tax records. I’ve known others who tried the same thing, just like the guy with a felony record who tried to get me to buy a gun and give it to him, to hunt with. His claim was legitimate, he did want a shotgun to hunt with, but I told him no way was I going to have him running around with a gun that was attached to a background check with MY NAME on it.

Or the guy who wanted to start up a small business and have me sign my name to the DBA permit. Not a chance in hell buddy, that makes me responsible for any financial shenanigans you pull too.

That is what the politicians won’t tell you, this will hurt small businesses, not the large multinational corporations, and that is actually their intent. They hate small business, it cuts into corporate profits. They want to destroy small business, which is why corporate taxes were so high when stompy feet left the white hut.

There are lies and damn lies. This is a damn lie.

[Sirius Lee]

Corporation have never, will never pay one cent of any taxes, state, local or federal.

Not only do they just pass the pain along by way of price increases, etc. They also enjoy tax breaks/loopholes that only affect Company A, not Company B, so that half the time, the tax increases don't even impact them.