Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said Wednesday the bottom half of earners should pay zero federal income taxes — while taking a swing at tax-the-rich pols and calling out government waste.
Speaking to Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the billionaire called for changes to the US tax system, which he said sees the top 1% of taxpayers pay 40% of all tax revenue and the bottom half contribute 3%. That’s in keeping with official figures.
“I don’t think it should be 3%,” Bezos asserted. “I think it should be zero.”
“When people are starting out and they’re struggling, stop taxing them. We don’t need it. We live in the wealthiest country in the world.”
He said income taxes paid by lower earners represent “a small amount of money for the government,” nodding to the hypothetical taxes paid by a healthcare worker who earns $75,000 annually.
“We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington,” he said. “They should be sending her an apology. It really makes no sense.”
Bezos defended his own tax bill — noting he pays billions to the feds — and seemingly jabbed at tax-the-rich agendas from pols like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has outraged wealthy business owners with his proposed tax on luxury second homes.
The exec said he was actually fine with the pied-à-terre tax, but asserted: “You could double the taxes I pay, and it’s not gonna help that teacher in Queens. I promise you.”
In that vein, he went on to remark, “There is so much waste in government spending.”
Bezos also criticized Mamdani’s controversial video touting the pied-à-terre tax by going after Citadel CEO Ken Griffin.
The multi-billionaire blasted the “10,000-plus-pages-long” tax code, too.
“It has built-in corporate loopholes for various things. This is crony capitalism. And of course, it should be fixed,” he said.
When asked about his relationship with President Trump, Bezos said he has worked with every commander-in-chief since Bill Clinton and that he would “advocate” for the change, though he didn’t specify how lawmakers might start slashing taxes.
Bezos nodded to discussions around the so-called K-shaped economy, the idea that higher-income groups are benefitting from stock market gains and high wages while low- and middle-earners are struggling to survive amid a rising cost-of-living.
“I think what’s going on is that it’s kind of a tale of two economies, so you have a bunch of people in this country who are doing really well, but you also have a bunch of people in this country who are struggling,” said Bezos, whom Forbes ranks as the world’s fourth-richest person with a $269 billion net worth
Bezos talked about his own parents’ success stories in America, discussing how his adoptive father came to the US from Cuba in the 1960s and his mother was a teen mom in Albuquerque, NM.
“I look at that and I think, I want to make sure that the people that are struggling today have a chance to do that too, to bring themselves up and maybe they’re gonna be the next Steve Jobs. Maybe one of their kids will be the next Steve Jobs, I don’t know,” said Bezos, who currently serves as executive chairman of Amazon, the country’s largest parcel carrier.
“But we can give them a better chance by eliminating their tax bill. And I don’t want to reduce it, I want to eliminate it.”
In 2023, the bottom half of taxpayers had an adjusted gross income of nearly $54,000 – while those in the top 1% earned at least $676,000, according to a Tax Foundation analysis citing IRS data.
More than 76 million households made up the bottom half of earners in 2023, and paid $913 in federal income taxes on average, the analysis said.
The average income tax rate that year was 14.1%, according to the Tax Foundation. The top 1% of taxpayers paid an average rate of 26.3%, about seven times higher than the 3.7% paid by the lower half of earners.
