Amazon's annual tax bill fell 87% YoY to $1.2B in 2025, as profits grew 45% to ~$90B, mostly due to GOP's depreciation breaks in the One Big Beautiful Bill
PoliticoBrian Faler
Context & Ripple Effects
Amazon's tax treatment has been a recurring point of coverage: the company was previously reported to have owed no federal income tax on its 2018 profit, before later reporting a federal income-tax expense above $1 billion in 2019. The new result returns attention to how tax rules can produce sharply different outcomes across years.
The stated driver is depreciation relief in the One Big Beautiful Bill, tying Amazon's current tax outcome to the treatment of investment rather than to a fall in profitability.
First-order effects
Amazon's reported 2025 tax bill is substantially lower despite higher profit, reducing its near-term tax expense under the cited depreciation provisions.
The result makes Amazon a prominent example of the practical effect of the GOP-backed depreciation breaks.
Second-order effects
Other companies with large depreciable investment bases may evaluate whether the same provisions change the timing and economics of planned capital spending.
If depreciation-led reductions persist, corporate tax outcomes may become more closely shaped by investment timing and asset write-offs than by a single year's reported profit.
The policy debate is likely to focus increasingly on whether accelerated depreciation is functioning chiefly as an investment incentive or as a source of large tax-payment volatility for highly profitable companies.
The trend: Accelerated-depreciation policy is becoming a more consequential lever in how capital-intensive large companies convert investment into lower current tax bills.
Because they reinvest a tremendous amount of money in building new things in America. All of these headlines about how “little” corporations pay in taxes are just about reinvestment in new capital and R&D. Do we not want those things?
Three numbers every American should know today. — Bezos paid Trump $40 million for the ‘Melania’ documentary. — Now, Bezos saves $8 billion because of Trump's corporate tax cuts. — While 17 million Americans lose health care. — Corruption, plain and simple.
In related news about the Washington Post and the state of journalism today, Amazon “ran a $1.2 billion tax bill last year, down from $9 billion the previous year, even as its profits jumped by 45% to nearly $90 billion.” — That's in the wake of the 2025 tax bill — www.politi…
“.. The company did not pay the corporate alternative minimum tax, and has never reported paying the levy, though Democrats created it in hopes of forcing companies like Amazon to pay more.” — @politico.com $AMZN — www.politico.com/news/2026/02... [image]
Republicans' tax cuts shaved billions off Amazon's tax bill, new government filings show. — That's largely because of the generous new depreciation breaks GOP lawmakers included in their One Big Beautiful Bill. — www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
Amazon's tax bill plunges after GOP tax cuts! — The 87 percent drop is largely due to a more generous depreciation break in the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act.’ — “Buying republicans was the best investment I ever made!” crows Jeff Bezos. — www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
This is how Republicans literally buy votes and donations. Republicans have stopped taking care of the poor and disadvantaged. They use those monies to give huge handouts to the big Corporations and the wealthy. — www.politico.com/news/2026/02...