During an address, President Biden said Amazon uses “various loopholes” to avoid paying any federal income taxes, but says he doesn't want to “punish” them
Amazon's federal tax bill has been a recurring political target across two administrations: in 2018 Trump attacked the company on Twitter over paying little or no taxes, and ITEP separately reported that after $11.2B in 2018 profits Amazon owed no federal income tax and received a $129M rebate. Biden's remarks extend that bipartisan pattern — naming 'various loopholes' while explicitly declining to punish the company.
Amazon is placed at the center of the corporate tax-reform debate without facing punitive action from the White House, giving it room to lobby for a rate increase it can absorb better than smaller competitors.
Bezos's subsequent endorsement of a higher corporate rate becomes the company's public answer to the loophole criticism, reframing Amazon as a prospective partner in infrastructure funding.
Second-order effects
Rival large corporations that also rely on tax credits face pressure to match Amazon's public support for reform, or risk being cast as the remaining holdouts against a popular rate hike.
Third-order effects
If the administration pairs its rhetoric with legislation closing the credits and deductions behind Amazon's zero-tax years — as ITEP's reporting documented — the structural norm of profitable giants owing little or no federal income tax could end, with compliance costs falling hardest on companies without Amazon-scale tax departments.
Presidential pressure on Amazon has now come from both parties across two administrations, suggesting sustained political scrutiny of the company regardless of which party holds the White House — consistent with Biden's later pro-union stance toward it.
The trend: Corporate tax avoidance by profitable tech giants is shifting from partisan attack line to bipartisan policy target, with Amazon moving to position itself inside the reform conversation rather than against it.
WATCH: President Biden says he aims to establish a global minimum tax for U.S. corporations at 21%. “A farmer and teacher paying 22%? Amazon and 90 other major corporations paying zero in federal taxes? I'm going to put an end to that.” https://twitter.com/...
Some of the biggest, most profitable corporations in America (I'm looking at you, Amazon) have paid $0 in federal corporate income taxes. I've pushed for a tax on the book profits of these giant corporations, and the Biden-Harris #AmericanJobsPlan includes a version of this.
With great respect, Senator @ewarren, this isn't correct about Amazon's tax payments. But changing the law is certainly more productive than faulting companies for following it-and far better than threatening to break up American companies so they can't criticize elected leaders.…
@JayCarney @ewarren Dude, you all at Amazon have been dodging taxes and collecting public money from the beginning but *also* you spend money to influence politicians to make the laws you want to allow you to do this. Then you blame the laws? 🤔 c'mon man
@JayCarney @ewarren Hey Jay if you're asserting that Amazon prefers increased regulation then tell me why Amazon pays tens of millions of dollars/year to buy off lawmakers to assure no new regulation or enforcement of current regulation? Why didn't Amazon show up to Bernie's hear…
“Companies like Amazon paying zero federal taxes? That's just wrong.” - President Joe Biden, also known as @JayCarney's former boss https://twitter.com/...
Biden wants to finance his “Build Back Better” plan by raising taxes on corporations. Good. But he's only partly rolling back Trump's big corporate tax cut. Why not all of it? Why not even higher tax rates on giant corporations like Amazon that have profiteered from the pandemic?