top of page
  • BMMS

Another Attempted Business Tax, Lawmakers Seek to Tax Amazon

CBS News reported that Amazon paid a federal income tax rate of 1.2% last year, which was a three year high for Amazon. This was about 13% lower than the average American and I think it is fair to say Seattle lawmakers are annoyed.

It seems that Seattle will stop at nothing to get Amazon to pay its “fair share” and it shows with the different taxing strategies the city has attempted over the past few years. The current proposal, House Bill 2907, would allow King County to create an additional payroll tax. Specifically, the bill would authorize King County to implement a 0.1 to 0.2% payroll tax on big businesses.

But that isn’t it. Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant unveiled a more aggressive proposal last week at Seattle City Hall. Her proposal would implement a 1.7% payroll tax on the top 3% of Seattle companies. She estimates the tax would impact around 825 companies and raise over $300M in tax dollars for the city. The additional revenue would be used to build affordable housing and other services for Seattle’s homeless.

Sawant’s proposal has had some immediate scrutiny due to her recent alleged ethics violations, so we will see if it gets the support and traction it needs to pass.

Read more about it in the following articles:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-taxes-1-2-percent-13-billion-2019/

https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=2907&Initiative=false&Year=2019

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle-city-council-kshama-sawant-amazon-tax-proposal-ethics-violations/281-58409ea4-4828-44d3-90c1-cbae7a597bd3

0 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

We do not expect significant changes to Opportunity Zones unless the Democrats take control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. Law360.com has a good analysis of existing proposals to re

Wolters Kluwer created a comprehensive analysis on what a Biden win means to 2021 tax policy and beyond. We have been following the updates and wanted to share the information with you. Highlights inc

bottom of page