- Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says lower earners in the US should pay zero tax.
- Using the example of a "nurse in Queens," Bezos questioned the current income taxation model.
- "There's something very powerful about zero," Bezos said in an interview with CNBC.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the fourth-richest man in the world, says low earners in the US should pay no tax.
"1% of taxpayers pay 40% of all the tax revenue; the bottom half pay only 3%. I think it should be zero," Bezos said in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
"There's something very powerful about zero."
During the interview, Bezos repeatedly criticized taxation on lower-income workers, using the example of a "nurse in Queens earning $75,000."
Speaking from his Blue Origin rocket facility in Florida, Bezos said the US in 2026 is a "tale of two economies."
"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," Bezos said.
He was nodding to the current K-shaped economy: many wealthy Americans have benefited from a prolonged stock-market boom and surging real estate prices in recent years, while others have been squeezed by stubborn inflation, onerous interest rates, and an affordability crisis.
"Some people talk about making the tax system more progressive," Bezos said. "How about we start by having the nurse in Queens not pay taxes?"
"Why is a nurse in Queens who makes $75,000 a year paying more than $1,000 a month in taxes? That's $1,000 a month that could help with rent, groceries, or anything."
He later used the example of an Amazon worker in New York making around $50,000 a year, calling the idea of taxing them "absurd."
"Why are you taxing them so much? I really am puzzled by this."
Later, when asked about the potential for a universal basic income, Bezos returned to his nurse analogy.
"Instead of universal basic income, how about we stop taxing a nurse making $75,000?"
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for a registered nurse across New York, Newark, and Jersey City is roughly $120,000, while vocational nurses, who generally have a lower level of education, make $75,000.
Bezos' personal taxes
Bezos' comments are the latest in a heated debate over a proposed billionaire tax in California, intended to raise funds to offset federal cuts to health services for lower-income people.
The one-time, 5% tax would be levied on their worldwide net worth, spanning assets such as stocks, art, businesses, and vehicles, but not directly held real estate.
Bezos' personal fortune stood at $279 billion as of Tuesday's close, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
His net worth mostly comprises a roughly 8% stake in Amazon, one of the world's largest e-commerce and cloud-computing company with a $2.8 trillion market capitalization as of Tuesday's close.
Like many billionaires, Bezos has been accused of not paying his fair share of taxes and not paying his workers a living wage. Citing leaked IRS data on Bezos' tax returns, ProPublica reported in 2021 that Bezos didn't pay any federal income tax in 2007 or 2011 despite already being a billionaire.
"If people want me to pay more billions right, then let's have that debate, but don't pretend that that's going to solve the problem," Bezos told CNBC. "You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not going to help that teacher in Queens. I promise you."
Bezos has repeatedly underscored the value he says he has created for society. In his last shareholder letter as CEO, he estimated that in 2020, Amazon created $301 billion in total value for its shareholders, employees, third-party sellers, and customers.
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Will Martin is a senior business editor with 10 years of experience in various roles at Business Insider. He works with a team of reporters and editors to cover everything from Big Tech, to the aviation industry, to fast food.Prior to working on the business news team, Will led Insider's sports coverage in the company's London bureau, publishing award-nominated work on alleged gang involvement in elite boxing, deeply-reported features on a civil war in Olympic sport modern pentathlon, and profiles of some of the biggest rising-stars in soccer.Before joining the sports team, Will spent a year as an associate editor on Insider's global news team. Before that, Will worked as a markets and economics reporter for Business Insider for more than three years.During his time with the news team, Will assigned and edited reporting and features on everything from the Boeing 737 Max crisis, to the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in China, to global geopolitics, and even a Barack Obama-themed service station in Ireland.He also personally reported on allegations of illegal mass human organ harvesting in China.Prior to working for Insider, Will gained a BA in International Relations from the University of Exeter, and an MA in Financial Journalism at City, University of London.You can reach him by email on: [email protected]Or via Twitter: @willmartin19
Theron Mohamed is a London-based correspondent on the Trending team at Business Insider. His coverage spans finance, investing, wealth, markets, and the economy.Theron joined BI in 2019 as a reporter at Markets Insider and rose to the rank of correspondent before moving to the Trending team in 2024. He previously covered tech, media, and telecom stocks for Investors Chronicle magazine and had a brief stint on the Financial Times' Data team. He interned at the Wall Street Journal in New York where he primarily wrote for Heard on the Street.Theron has freelanced for The Independent, The Telegraph, WIRED, and several smaller publications. He holds an undergraduate degree in geography from the London School of Economics, and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.Theron often covers Warren Buffett, Michael Burry, Jeremy Grantham and other top-flight investors. He also writes about the world's wealthiest people and shares financial advice from all manner of rich and successful people.Email Theron at [email protected] and follow him on X @theron_mohamed.Expertise
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