NEW REPORT: Amazon and Our Rigged Tax System

April 24, 2025 | Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – On April 24, the Institute for Policy Studies, the Athena Coalition, and PowerSwitch Action released a timely new report, “Amazon and Our Rigged Tax System: The Stakes in the Tax Debate for the Corporation and Its Executives versus Workers and Small Business.”

Every year, Tax Day exposes just how rigged the U.S. tax system is – while millions of Americans pay their fair share, big corporations like Amazon and their top executives get to exploit tax loopholes to avoid doing the same.

All the while, lawmakers in Congress are debating a tax policy that only stands to further enrich the wealthy and powerful — at the expense of the rest of us.

In an accessible, detailed analysis, the report reveals:

• Jeff Bezos pocketed $6.2 billion as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)’s failure to address the disparity in tax rates on income from wealth versus income from work. On his $36.7 billion in Amazon stock sales since that tax reform, Bezos owed only a 20 percent capital gains tax, far less than the 37 percent top marginal rate on ordinary income.
• Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy pocketed at least $6.6 million in savings over the past seven years thanks to the TCJA’s reduction in the top marginal income tax rate.
• If Congress extends the TCJA’s weakened estate tax, Bezos and Jassy’s heirs would enjoy savings of $5.6 million. If they eliminate the estate tax altogether, Jassy’s heirs could avoid about $199 million in tax, and the Bezos family could avoid about $86 billion. The current estate tax does not apply to families with less than $28 million.
• Under the fixed cap on Social Security payroll taxes, Jassy’s contribution to this vital program amounted to just 0.4 percent of his taxable compensation in 2024. As a share of compensation, Amazon’s median-paid worker, who earned $37,181 last year, contributed 6.2 percent — 15 times more than Jassy — to Social Security.
• Amazon has used credits and loopholes to avoid paying even the sharply reduced TCJA corporate tax rate of 21 percent. In fact, in the first four years under the law, their effective tax rate was just 5.1 percent. If they had paid the full statutory corporate rate of 21 percent between 2018 and 2021, their IRS bill would’ve been $12.5 billion higher.
• 72 percent of the 1.2 million Amazon employees participating in Amazon’s 401(k) program in 2023 had zero balances in their 401(k) accounts, just one sign of how low-wage workers miss out on many tax advantages enjoyed by the rich.

Our three organizations joined forces to produce this report because of our shared concern that a rising oligarchy is building an economy that bankrolls billionaires while leaving workers and small businesses behind. Right now, working families are bracing for drastic cuts to life-saving programs like Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare and harmful slashing of pro-consumer regulations.

Meanwhile, big corporations like Amazon and their executives stand to get even richer and more powerful through the huge tax breaks proposed by the administration and Congress. This fight has profound implications not only for Amazon and its executives, but for the balance of power in our economy.

Ahead of May Day, with actions planned around the country to highlight the fight to protect workers’ rights and dignity, the contrast between the wants of companies like Amazon and top executives like Bezos and the needs of ordinary Americans could not be starker.

“Through granular analysis of one specific company and its top executives, this report illustrates how our tax code has contributed to the extreme concentration of wealth and power that is threatening our economy and our democracy,” said Sarah Anderson, Global Economy Director at the Institute for Policy Studies and the report’s lead author.

“My husband and I wait in line for hours at the food pantry every Monday, while Amazon’s executives make millions off our labor as we break our bodies to earn a living. We all deserve to retire with dignity, but I have zero savings while the people whose wealth I’m creating have more than they and their future generations could ever need,” said Wendy Taylor, Amazon STL8 worker and STL8 organizing committee member. “It would be easier to stomach if Amazon paid us the true value of our work, but they’ve chosen profits over fair compensation. As our labor helps the company prosper, certain politicians have let Bezos and Jassy rig the rules in their favor. They pay nearly nothing in taxes, diverting public resources from our parks, schools, and neighborhoods for their private gain. Enough is enough. Together, we must demand Amazon pay what they owe—both through taxes and fair wages—using their resources to treat us with the dignity we deserve so nothing stands between us and providing for our families and communities.”

“By gutting important public programs and expanding tax breaks for the wealthy, the Trump administration is on the brink of a massive transfer of wealth from the public to billionaires and corporations. This report highlights what’s at stake by detailing the numerous ways Trump’s tax code is designed to favor Amazon and its executives over the very workers and independent small businesses that have been hurt by Amazon,” said Ryan Gerety, Director of the Athena Coalition. “Over the next several months, we must stand together to protect public programs and oppose tax handouts to corporate billionaires like Andy Jassy and Jeff Bezos.”

“Amazon and Jeff Bezos have made billions squeezing every drop of profit they can out of our communities by breaking workers’ bodies, poisoning our air, and sucking up public subsidies, and now they’re selling out our fundamental freedoms,” said Lauren Jacobs, Executive Director of PowerSwitch Action. “To stop autocracy, we need to challenge the corporations and billionaires behind and benefiting from oligarchy, not give them more tax breaks.”

View the full report and key findings: https://ips-dc.org/report-amazon-and-our-rigged-tax-system