Biden Points Out Amazon For Dodging Taxes, Proposes Rate Hike To 28%: Report

  • President Joe Biden called out Amazon.Com Inc AMZN twice amongst global 91 Fortune 500 companies for non-payment of federal taxes during his Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania address, Reuters reports.
  • Biden proposed a corporate tax rate hike from 21% to 28% under his new infrastructure spending plan. He also suggested a tax code alteration to plug the regulatory loopholes to prevent companies from the overseas transfer of profits. He also rebuked the middle-class tax bracket of 20% and the fireman and teacher 22% tax bracket.
  • Amazon emphasized an R&D tax credit tweet between the company official and former White House press secretary, acknowledging the tax credit’s existence since 1981 and its implementation into permanent law in 2015.
  • Amazon resumed federal income tax payment from 2019 after two years of tax credit exemption. Amazon was able to pay only $900 million out of its over $3 billion (including over $1 billion in federal income taxes and the rest in other federal taxes) 2019 federal income tax expense.
  • Amazon’s 2020 tax contributions included $1.7 billion in federal income tax expense and $1.8 billion in payroll taxes and customs duties. It also reported over $2.6 billion in state and local taxes.
  • Amazon reported revenue and operating income of $386 billion and $22.9 billion respectively in 2020 from the pandemic-induced demand spike in online shopping and cloud computing services.
  • Biden had previously named Amazon in 2019 for the same reason.
  • Price action: AMZN shares are trading higher by 0.77% at $3,118 in the premarket session on the last check Thursday.
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