In 2025, Amazon made $59.2 billion in profits. Their federal tax bill? Exposed by Americans for Tax Fairness , it was slashed by 87% thanks to the Trump-GOP tax law. They paid an effective rate so low it would make your accountant cry.
Meanwhile — and I need you to sit down for this — they laid off 30,000 workers. Thirty. Thousand. People lost their jobs while the company printed money like it had a deal with the Federal Reserve.
And Jeff? Jeff and his mistress turned wife are out getting more gender affirming care - new faces. Sir, you have $200 billion and that's the face you bought?
The Long Con: Bezos Has Been Doing This for Decades
ProPublica's bombshell IRS investigation revealed the billionaire playbook years ago:
- 2007:Bezos paid $0 in federal income taxes. Zero. His fortune grew $3.8 billion that year.
- 2011:He reported he actually lost money. His wealth sat at $18 billion. He even claimed a $4,000 child tax credit meant for struggling families.
- 2006-2018:Bezos' wealth grew by $127 billion. He reported just $6.5 billion in income and paid $1.4 billion in taxes — a true tax rate of 1.1%.
Now, if you're a nurse, a teacher, a warehouse worker — you know, the people who actually keep society functioning — you're paying somewhere between 20-30%. But the guy who can literally afford to build a rocket ship to escape the planet he's helping destroy? One percent.
The Corporate Heist of 2025
Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla collectively received $51 billion in federal tax breaks in 2025, paying an average effective rate of just 4.9%.
Where did that $51 billion come from? The same law slashed Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, as the Roosevelt Institute noted. Congress literally cut healthcare for the most vulnerable Americans to hand billionaires a bigger tax break. That's not policy — that's grand larceny.
"Buy, Borrow, Die"
Bezos' Amazon salary? A cute little $80,000 a year. Just a regular middle-class guy, right? The trick is elegant in its cruelty: don't take a salary, don't sell stock, borrow against your billions at single-digit interest rates, and let the tax code — written by the politicians you've bought — do the rest.
USC tax law professor Edward McCaffery calls it "buy, borrow, die."
"Tax wealth — not work. It is the only way forward."
— Gary Stevenson , former wealth trader turned inequality campaigner
Why This Hits Black Communities Hardest
The racial wealth gap in America isn't an accident — it's a feature. When billionaires dodge taxes, the money has to come from somewhere. And historically, that "somewhere" is public schools, healthcare, housing programs, and social safety nets that disproportionately serve Black and brown communities.
Every dollar Amazon doesn't pay in taxes is a dollar not going to:
- Affordable housing in communities facing displacement
- Public education in underfunded school districts
- Healthcare access for the uninsured and underinsured
So while Bezos is out here looking like a freshly rendered video game character, entire communities are being told there's "no money" for basic services. The money exists. It's just been redistributed upward.
What You Can Do
1. Support Tax Wealth, Not Work
Follow Gary Stevenson's campaign and Americans for Tax Fairness
2. Advocate for Taxing Unrealized Gains
Support the Billionaires Income Tax Act
3. Support Black-Led Orgs
Community-level organizing is where power is built
4. BOYCOTT AMAZON!
Cancel your Prime account. Make your dollars count.
Bottom Line
Jeff Bezos can afford a new face. He can afford a superyacht with a support yacht. He can afford to sue NASA when he doesn't get a contract. What he apparently cannot afford is paying his fair share in taxes.
And the system? The system is working exactly as designed — just not for us.
Tax wealth. Not work. ✊🏾
