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