Monday, April 29, 2019

Amazon, paying corporate taxes of $0, is expanding in Wisconsin

The New York Times uses Amazon's zero-dollar corporate tax payment to lede this story:
Profitable Giants Like Amazon Pay $0 in Corporate Taxes. Some Voters Are Sick of It.
For decades, profitable companies have been able to avoid corporate taxes. But the list of those paying zero roughly doubled last year as a result of provisions in President Trump’s 2017 tax bill that expanded corporate tax breaks and reduced the tax rate on corporate income.
“Amazon, Netflix and dozens of major corporations, as a result of Trump’s tax bill, pay nothing in federal taxes,” Mr. [Bernie] Sanders said this month during a Fox News town hall-style event. “I think that’s a disgrace.”
Amazon, already open in Kenosha County with the help of substantial public subsidies, will also scooping up similar subsidies as it prepares an expansion to Oak Creek.
Seattle Spheres on May 10, 2018.jpg
Run from Seattle, Amazon is subsidized by taxpayers from Kenosha to Oak Creek. And beyond in all directions.
And, of course, Foxconn with its $4 billion in state and local handouts  - - much of it in refundable tax credits - - is about midway on the map between these operations.

How many more insanely profitable, politically-connected businesses top-heavy with powerful senior managers are we supposed to subsidize?


And yet there was Donald Trump - - Reigning King of Corporate Welfare - - in Green Bay this weekend, having pushed through with help of self-interested corporate water-carriers like Ron Johnson the very 
tax 'reforms' that boosted the number of big companies like Amazon which now pay no corporate taxes.


The same Reigning King of Corporate Welfare who helped strap the Foxconn deal onto the backs of Wisconsin taxpayers who stood in front of his adoring but misled audience and dishonest propagandizing (1:17:39 mark) about Democrats and socialism:
And to those who would try to impose socialism in our country, we see nothing but trouble. We see nothing but poverty. And we will say again tonight that America will never be a socialist country ever, never, never.
We're already there, my friends - - it's just an upside down socialism for the rich. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Amazon, Wal-Mart etc. try to convince people that an average person can get a job there and do well. So they prey on folks who are just trying to pay the bills or have something a little better for their lives. Then comes the reality. The merciless driving you like a dog and constant "monitoring of your activities and performance". So if you stop to take a breath or stretch your back they are counting you as "accruing unproductive time". Then they'll toss you out and bring in the next hire or temp. We've been experiencing this "new concept of employment" for several decades now. It is only new to those who don't know history. The companies used to run people ragged for very little money and throw them aside back in the 1800's and early 1900's. The application of tech for tracking every moment of a worker's time and squeezing them for every ounce of energy is Industrial Engineering meets Frankenstein. The fact it gets done with the help of taxpayer money is like a nightmare version of "Metropolis".