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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmazon's Hard Bargain Extends Far Beyond New York
When Texas officials pushed Amazon to pay nearly $270 million in back sales taxes in 2010, Amazon responded by closing its only warehouse in the state and scrapping expansion plans there. Two years later, the officials agreed to waive the past taxes in exchange for Amazon opening new warehouses.
A similar scene played out in South Carolina, where officials decided in 2011 to deny Amazon a sales tax break. After threatening to stop hiring in the state, the company got the tax exemption by promising to hire more people.
And last year in Seattle, the companys hometown, Amazon halted plans to build one tower and threatened to lease out one under construction when local officials pushed a tax on large employers. The City Council passed a smaller version of the tax, but the company helped finance a successful opposition to repeal it. Now, Amazon plans to lease out its space in the tower under construction anyway.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/amazons-hard-bargain-extends-far-beyond-new-york/ar-BBUkpDH?ocid=spartanntp
Squinch
(50,955 posts)wellst0nev0ter
(7,509 posts)and the corporate oligarch took its ball and ran once a few socialists gained some power.
Good.
msongs
(67,417 posts)KWR65
(1,098 posts)Every business and individual should be charged the same tax rate no matter what. It is unfair for the government to give one business or individual a tax break while others pay full taxes on their business or income.
moondust
(19,993 posts)On $5.6 billion in profit.
http://www.snopes.com/fact-check/amazon-federal-taxes-2017/
So Amazon makes a lot of that money shipping stuff on U.S. highways and some years they don't even have to help pay for their construction and maintenance? Heckuva deal, Jeffy.
Wounded Bear
(58,668 posts)Corporations have been doing it for years. Meanwhile, our country is falling apart because of lack of revenues.