The tax code is not Amazons problem. They are legally obligated by their shareholders to make the biggest profit possible, likewise every other business.<p>people should be protesting congress, not Amazon, this constant red herring is ridiculous, Amazon, like every other business is trying to compete and will pay as little taxes as possible. Tell congress to change the rules and all businesses will play by better rules.<p>any other conversation about the meaning of Amazon paying the tax they have to I believe is a waste of time, both parties are guilty and the citizens are guilty for not protesting congress.
Many of the candidates are US lawmakers. Have they attempted to acquire the tax return? They’re statutorily entitled to it, and the case for a “legitimate legislative purpose” (“the tax code sounds messed up and I want to fix it”) is much clearer than it was when Congress exercised the same right to attempt to acquire Trump’s tax returns.<p>If they haven’t, this sounds like pandering. But hey, so’s “let’s axe student debt” instead of the obvious “let’s 20x Pell grants”, so...
Taxes should not be decided through a popularity contest and enforced through the court of public opinion.<p>After the financial crisis, bankers were unpopular, so politicians in the U.K. curried favour with the public by bringing in a banker bonus tax.<p>Tech companies were once the pride of the nation in the U.S. and the notion of creating tax incentives for tech investment in the U.S. was highly popular. Nowadays, they are no longer popular, so there is now a public outcry for taxing them more.<p>Tax can't be like that, because investments don't go to where there is a lot of uncertainty.<p>I do agree that Amazon not paying any tax is an indicator of a broken system that needs fixing. But politicians coming out and saying "I'm going to tax Amazon" is not right either. They should say what the system should be, bring it in, and then stick with it, making sure there is proper enforcement.<p>They can't just come out during each electoral cycle and say "This year, we like Tesla, so whatever system doesn't have Tesla paying any taxes, that's the right system. And this year, we dislike Amazon, so whatever system levies a lot of taxes on Amazon, that's the system we're going to have. Not sure if the same will still be true next year, but we'll cross that bidge once we get to it."
America won't understand Amazon's tax returns. Between the vast bulk of people who simply won't understand them, and the small-but-loud minority of people who will be loudly misinterpreting them (in many cases, deliberately), I don't see this being helpful. It amounts to people asking for a platform to demagogue from. The amount of data we have now is really plenty to do the job. It's up to the professional legislators to figure out how to fix it.
I'd like to see every mention of companies in the news to include the amount of tax they paid in the last year. So in this case "blah blah blah Amazon($0)".
Looking at individual company tax returns is the wrong solution to this problem. <i>It's not just ineffective, it's dishonest.</i><p>It's tempting to take a "tax the bastards" viewpoint and argue that the tax-avoiding companies are the problem, that they're freeloading, scamming the government. That's the message you get from the presidential candidates. But that argument wilfully ignores the most important fact: tax incentives are the way the government pays people and companies to change their behavior.<p>The incentive says the government will pay you $X if you do some specific thing. Install solar panels, cut carbon emissions, employ members of a vulnerable population. There are thousands of options. They use the tax process to distribute the rewards because it's simpler and cheaper that way.<p>Low-tax companies are just the ones who operate in spaces with a lot of these incentives. Identifying the companies isn't relevant, the companies aren't the problem. You want to instead identify the <i>incentives</i> that are eating up your revenue. How much does your solar panel incentive cost? That kind of thing.<p>And before you ask: Yes, offshore income arrangement are another tax incentive. They're more complicated beause they involve several countries competing on tax rates, but it's just another version of the same problem.
Trying to establish a set of rules for what counts as a business expense and what doesn't for the infinite number of changing industries is a futile task. It also creates weird situations like Apple harboring cash outside the USA.<p>We should get rid of the corporate tax rate and tax money when it comes out of corporations to real people (dividends, buybacks, etc) at a revenue neutral rate. Would make things a lot cleaner
The President does not set tax policy. The legislature does, and many of these candidates are lawmakers.<p>But in the recent debates we also discussed if candidates would prosecute Trump after he’s no longer a sitting President, apparently conveniently forgetting that it’s the DoJ, not the President, who decides who to prosecute.
The historical Boston Tea Party event comes to mind. Not wanting to pay taxes (or in this case, legally minimizing your tax burden) is as American as apple pie.
It's curious how when these people complain about corporations not paying taxes they reliably fail to mention that it's because of R&D tax credits.<p>Not sure how wise it is for politicians to employ a populist strategy against companies that outstrip them in favorability among the average citizen.
<i>>
“We pay every penny we owe in corporate taxes including $2.6 billion over the past three years,” Amazon said when reached for comment. “We’ve invested $270 billion in the US since 2010 and created more than 275,000 jobs.”</i><p>Does "every penny we owe" mean what a layperson would think, or does it mean their lawyers used every weird loophole they could find to make sure they "owe" nothing at all?<p>The second part of the quote is irrelevant. It's nice that they're creating jobs, but they're only mentioning that to essentially bribe us into accepting being swindled out of money they owe. Just pay your taxes!
America, and the world, should see <i>everyone's</i> tax returns.<p>What's the big secret? If you're proud of what you earn and the taxes that flow from that then show it. If you're not proud, then that should be exposed too.