Amazon will pay $0 in federal taxes on $11,200,000,000 in profit for 2018

It's kind of both though. If the system sucks, then change it. It's not just republicans, people in general have proven they dont do jack shit about personal responsibility. I've found most democrats to be just as shitty in that regard. They just have higher opinions of themselves but zero personal introspection. Too busy holding their noses up at the world. Bunch of dicks.

Democrats has the House of Representatives. Amazon's Jeff Bezos is a pro-Democrat operative.

And yet the Republican had control and did not remove loopholes. Hence the policy of the conservatives. The more you know.........

And yet the Democrats had control and did not remove loopholes.

@Serraph105: Any corporate tax discussions needs to factor in globalization and OECD competition factors.

Do you take the deductions on your taxes?

The topic is specific to Federal taxes, hence a discussion to a change in the 'Federal' tax code. Saying they pay taxes via other means is ignoring the topic at hand.

No they did not.

Billionaires can leave a state with high tax rates i.e. they are very mobile.

AOC's driving away Amazon from NY is an example.

@ronvalencia: You're just proving his point.

Democrats have tried and have changed it in the past. We passed financial oversight, for instance, which was then summarily torn to shreds by Republicans once they got into power. There are plenty of good tax proposals that help average Americans on the Democratic side, but as soon as they get put forward the red-baiting starts and they're completely dead in the Senate without so much as a debate. Don't rig the rules of the game and then say it's my fault for not winning a rigged game.

And besides, I'm not talking about abstractions. I have a real concrete example of a Republican saying that loopholes are bad, but refusing to hold corporations that utilize responsible. That's exhibit A in lacking responsibility. No one forces these corporations to exploit loopholes, and no one forces Republicans to refuse to hold them responsible. Either loopholes are bad and we should be concerned about both legislative reform and calling out corporations who take them, or loopholes aren't really that much of a problem. But don't say they're a problem, and then say it's all fine and dandy for corporations to utilize them until Democrats manage to break through a historically deadlocked political process and completely undo a tax code that was created over decades.

I think the mistake you are making is putting your faith in democrats. I think we need a new party. republicans are obviously in the pocket of big business, but most democrats are too. They talk one way but then act another. Hillary wouldnt have been hiding her speeches to the big banks if there wasn't something amiss. If you want true change, you need to drop the donkey and go with the iron sickle.

It's not that the game is rigged, it's just one side doesn't want or know how to win. The democratic party is the party of political impotence. You have to admit that. Obama had majorities in the house and senate for his first 2 years. yet, all i ever heard was how the republicans are preventing this and that. They could have easily passed whatever legislation they wanted without a single republican vote. But they couldn't find agreement in their own party. Could have done better financial reform, could have passed a far superior version of obamacare, could have passed environmental legislation etc. etc etc. Look at the country. More people identify with the democratic party and their policies. More people are registered as democratic voters. Simply get their base out to vote and the democratic party should have majorities in government. No reason they should have lost the presidential election. Yet they always find a way to fail or lose.

Yes, the constitution does seem to require a large amount of inertia and energy to get things done, but put in the damn effort. then. Bush and Trump got their incredibly irresponsible tax cuts passed. Why can't the democrats do similar things on their end? Why can republicans tear democratic policy to shreds, but the democrats can't tear down policies they don't like when they are in power? Why are the constantly outmanouvered by a party of clowns? The problem i have with this party is that it's the party of blame others and do nothing. Why can the republicans get shit done and the democrats can't? That's the question that democrats should be asking their politicians and themselves.

It's not that republicans lack responsibility, they just are responsible to the wrong group. They side with corporations. They always have. I highly doubt that they are concerned about closing supposed "loopholes" if they benefit businesses. And what exactly are these loopholes? How is amazon not paying taxes and not being fined or its members given jail time? How are they avoiding taxes? Businesses can carry losses forward and can deduct expenses. Neither of those are really loopholes. If they're shuttling money out of the country to avoid taxes on it, then I wouldn't mind seeing laws enacted to curtail that. Some US companies have their corporate headquarters in foreign countries to avoid paying the higher US corporate tax rates. I think we could address that as well.

The number of large corporations zeroing out their tax liabilities has doubled under the GOP tax plan.

At least 60 companies reported that their 2018 federal tax rates amounted to effectively zero, or even less than zero, on income earned on U.S. operations, according to an analysis released today by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The number is more than twice as many as ITEP found roughly, per year, on average in an earlier, multi-year analysis before the new tax law went into effect.

The identified companies were "able to zero out their federal income taxes on $79 billion in U.S. pretax income," according to the ITEP report, which was released today. "Instead of paying $16.4 billion in taxes, as the new 21 percent corporate tax rate requires, these companies enjoyed a net corporate tax rebate of $4.3 billion, blowing a $20.7 billion hole in the federal budget last year." To compile the list, ITEP analyzed the 2018 financial filings of the country's largest 560 publicly-held companies.

The controversial Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed by President Donald Trump in December 2017, lowered the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, among other cuts. That's partly to blame for giving corporations an easier way out of paying taxes, said Matthew Gardner, an ITEP senior fellow and lead author of the report. The new corporate tax rate "lowers the bar for the amount of tax avoidance it takes to get you down to zero," he said.

I don't have a problem with Amazon as a business. I like the service. But this is obviously egregious tax loop-hole-ing and is so shitty and awful. We have to stomp on this.

Our ballooning deficit is a myth!

I think people should take this into consideration when voting in 2020.

So before we all grab out pitchforks and nooses, has anybody bothered to ask how many jobs Amazon have created in that time period?

@Dark_sageX: Relevance?

Job creation as the benefit for reducing taxation on business? or is that something not important to you?

Are you implying that they would have foregone making that 11.2 billion dollars if they had to pay 21% of it in taxes (thus merely earning 8.8 billion dollars in profits)?

@Dark_sageX: And how much their employees contribute to federal taxes.

Also, when customers make a purchase, aren’t they paying a tax as well? Is it all state or municipal?

What’s this ‘no tax’? That’s impossible.