BIG BREAK

Amazon Paid a 1.2 Percent Tax Rate on Billions in Profits in 2019

The company claimed it paid billions in taxes. It actually only paid $162 million.

While Amazon said it paid “billions” in taxes in 2019, the company actually paid $162 million in federal income tax—a tax rate of 1.2 percent on profits of more than $13 billion, according to Yahoo News. Amazon’s 2019 10-K filing reported the payment of $162 million in taxes and the deferment of $914 million in federal income taxes—meaning the company postponed the payment based on accounting practices and reducing their taxable income. In a late January blog post, the company said it paid over $4 billion in taxes. However, most of the amounts Amazon listed—like “more than $1.6 billion in state and local taxes” and “more than $2.4 billion in other federal taxes”—were not taxes that the company actually paid. The blog post reportedly listed taxes Amazon collects on behalf of the U.S. government, such as payroll taxes and sales taxes from third-party vendors.