Chapter 310 Dumb Amazon, You Are Crazy!

"Okay, I'll pass your message on to them!"

About two hours after ending the call with Sean, David's phone rang again, and when he saw that the caller ID was Donald's number, his mind was instantly lifted.

Could it be that the efforts of the Ansa Group have paid off?

Is it so efficient!

Without thinking too much, he immediately pressed the answer button with anticipation: "Deputy Director Donald."

"David, regarding whether to transfer you to the General Administration, all of our senior management now have the same goal, but you have to complete a task first."

"What task?"

"Get rid of Amazon!"

"Get rid of Amazon?"

David was a little confused.

Of course he knew about Amazon, which is the world's largest e-commerce platform with a market value of nearly 2 trillion, and its founder Jeff Bezos has been the world's richest man four times, with a personal net worth of more than 100 billion US dollars.

But then again, although Amazon is a giant-level enterprise in the United States, there are also enterprises of the same level as it. Why did the senior executives of the General Administration specifically ask him to deal with this one?

"This is a thorn. I will send you the information about Amazon later. As long as you can handle them, you will be transferred to the General Administration immediately!"

"Okay, I accept it!"

Amazon is a giant enterprise. It will definitely take a lot of effort to deal with them. However, since the General Administration said that as long as he can handle it, he will be transferred to the General Administration immediately, it is worth doing it anyway.

Shortly after the call ended, David received a document about Amazon in his mailbox.

After reading more content in the front of the document, he finally understood why the General Administration specifically asked him to deal with Amazon, an e-commerce giant.

Because according to the financial report data of Amazon in the past few years,

In 2017, Amazon had revenue of $177.87 billion, profit of $5.6 billion, federal tax rate of -2.5%, 0 tax, and received $137 million in tax refunds from the government.

In 2018, Amazon had revenue of $258.22 billion, profit of $11.2 billion, federal tax rate of -1.2%, 0 tax, and received another $129 million in tax from the government.

In 2019, Amazon had revenue of $280.5 billion and net profit of $11.6 billion. Perhaps under pressure, Amazon finally paid taxes in 2019, but the amount was not very high, and a total of $162 million in federal taxes was paid.

As for 2020 and 2021, Amazon also took the initiative to pay some taxes because of pressure.

However, after adding up all the taxes from 2017 to 2021, Amazon actually still paid 0 taxes, because it studies tax policies every year and receives tax refund subsidies from the government. In other words, Amazon has not paid taxes in the past few years, but has made a lot of subsidies by relying on tax policies and loopholes.

"Is Amazon so outrageous?"

David has not conducted an investigation on Amazon, but now that he has seen the information sent by the General Administration, he understands how outrageous Amazon is.

As we all know, there is a famous saying in America that only death and taxation are inevitable.

But this sentence does not seem to apply to Amazon now.

You know, most companies in America, even if you have a background, have to pay some taxes to the IRS.

Just like Apple, although they rely on overseas registrations and policies to avoid most of the taxes, they still pay billions of taxes to the IRS every year.

And you, Amazon, are so good. It’s okay that you don’t give a penny, but you also take money from the IRS every year?

This is not just a thorn in Donald’s mouth, but an assassin!

In order to thoroughly understand the tax avoidance method of Amazon, David almost checked the information word by word in the following time.

After more than an hour of reading, he roughly understood the tax avoidance method of Amazon.

First of all, in order to maintain the status of a technological superpower, the United States encourages innovation and development, so R&D investment can apply for tax reduction, and Amazon’s R&D investment accounts for about 7% of employee wages and benefits, which has always been at the forefront of technology giants. It relies on R&D tax reduction to avoid 23% of taxes every year.

Secondly, before 2005, Amazon began to develop its European business. At that time, the United States still levied taxes globally, with a federal tax rate of 35%. Foreign income repatriated to the United States had to pay taxes to the United States, thereby reducing foreign taxes and retaining profits abroad. Since Amazon completed its business restructuring in the European market in 2006, it established a tax avoidance structure of a Luxembourg shell company with a US-Luxembourg operating entity.

This is the same as the tax avoidance method used by Apple and most companies.

Finally, it relies on stock waiver deductions.

Many companies will issue stock options to senior employees instead of salary and remuneration, and the value of the corresponding stock options can be used as a cost deduction for the company.

The higher the company's stock price, the greater the deductible cost.

Most companies operate by repurchasing stocks first, pushing up the stock price, and then distributing them to employees.

Amazon is different. It does not repurchase stocks from the stock market, but prints them out of thin air.

The real payer for this behavior is Amazon's shareholders, because their existing stocks will depreciate as Amazon prints more stocks to employees.

This strategy will work as long as Amazon's stock price rises.

In the past 20 years, Amazon's annualized rate of return has reached 37%, and its stock price has risen more than 800 times.

By issuing stocks to employees for free, Amazon offset tens of billions of dollars in federal taxes in 2018 alone.

As for why Amazon can get tax refund subsidies?

Like China, many states or localities in the United States will provide some tax incentives to attract investment or companies to settle in.

Therefore, Amazon has invested heavily in computers, data centers and warehouse distribution centers across the United States based on its reputation and scale effect.

According to statistics, between 2005 and 2021, Amazon obtained more than 1.347 billion US dollars in tax subsidies from local governments through this method.

"It's really a good trick!"

After learning about Amazon's tax avoidance methods, David couldn't help but be a little convinced by the company, and he also understood why the General Administration insisted that he go to deal with this thorn first.

It is estimated that the General Administration has long been irritated with Dumb Amazon, but because this company is good at legal tax avoidance and has the support of the Freemasons, it has endured it again and again.

Now the Angsa Group has obviously put a lot of pressure on the General Administration, and the General Administration sees that the Angsa Group is determined to deal with the Freemasons, so it will directly attack Dumb Amazon, which can be regarded as a relief for so many years!

Putting away his thoughts, David picked up the phone: "Ask Bucky Simons Nissen to come to my office."

Five or six minutes later, the door was knocked, and three people came in one after another, looking at David with a look of "waiting for your orders".

"Have you heard about Amazon's tax situation?"

"Amazon...?"

The three of them paused, and then Simmons spoke first: "Although I haven't studied it seriously, in 2018, our former president tweeted about Amazon. At that time, he accused Amazon of not paying taxes, but taking advantage of the government repeatedly. Later, he even said that he would introduce a bill against Amazon, but it was left unresolved. Now I think it should have been suppressed. After all, as the world's largest e-commerce giant, Amazon must have an extraordinary network of relationships behind it."

"Has Amazon never paid taxes? And it takes advantage of the government?"

Baki also raised questions after hearing this.

He also didn't pay attention to Amazon's tax situation.

But in his opinion, for such a large company, you don't say that you should pay the full amount of taxes honestly, but you should also pay some to take care of the face of the IRS, right?

Why is it taking advantage of them now?

Is there still a law?

Is there still a law?

"Yes, I heard that they can not only avoid a large amount of taxes every year by exploiting the tax policies of various places, but also get a lot of tax subsidies from the local finances."

"Is it true?"

"This is the tax document about Dumb Amazon sent by the General Administration. You will know when you come and take a look!"

After listening to David's words, Bucky didn't bother to ask any more questions. He came to the computer first, and Simons Nissen was not slow either. He followed closely.

About ten minutes later, Bucky, who had roughly read it, was immediately furious and cursed: "Fuck, this Dumb Amazon is really outrageous. It's okay that he hasn't paid a tax for so many years, but he actually took so much money from us?"

Although he had not investigated Dumb Amazon's tax situation, this was a document sent by the General Administration, and it must be correct.

The document detailed the tax situation of Amazon every year, and concluded that Amazon paid 0 tax and received 1.347 billion US dollars in tax subsidies. How could he not be angry about such an exaggerated and outrageous ratio?

"This bastard is really bold!"

"Director, the General Administration sent this document to us to... let us take action against Amazon?"

David nodded.

"Okay, in that case, then Amazon's good days are over!"

Although Amazon is a giant-level enterprise in the United States, even the Disney family, Swiss Bank, and the Illuminati have fallen into their hands, so Nissen is naturally very confident in dealing with the other party.

"Oh, by the way, let me tell you something. The General Administration said that if we deal with Amazon, we can enter the General Administration immediately, so you understand it, right?"

The three people who were originally gritting their teeth at Amazon were shocked after hearing this, and a faint excitement emerged in their hearts.

After reporting to the General Administration and failing to get a signal from the General Administration to transfer in, the three of them were also quite disappointed.

Now, after hearing this promise, the disappointment in their hearts was swept away, and they were even more motivated. They wanted to kill Mamason immediately and use him as a stepping stone to enter the General Administration.

"Okay, don't stand there, invite the head of Mamason's Los Angeles branch back for coffee first!"

"Understood!"

The three of them stopped wasting time and stepped out of the office in a swift and decisive manner.

Long Beach District, Financial Center, Mamason Branch Office Building.

It was exactly three o'clock in the afternoon, and the employees here were still working hard, but suddenly, a group of people broke in and broke the tranquility here.

"IRS, we would like to ask the manager, financial director, and tax director of your Amazon branch to come back with us to cooperate with the investigation!"

When they heard that it was the IRS, many employees on the scene showed fearful expressions, and when they saw that the team leader was actually the "three great kings" under David, the head of the Los Angeles IRS, everyone's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

In everyone's current cognition, Simmons, Bucky, and Neeson are the incarnation of David and also represent his own will.

And with the previous events of the Sackler family, the Disney family, the Swiss bank, and cryptocurrency, David is actually going to take action against Amazon this time. How can that be a small matter?

It must be a big deal!

"What's wrong? Is there any problem with our Amazon taxation?"

Such a big commotion naturally disturbed the senior executives of the Amazon Los Angeles branch. They all came out of the office one by one and looked at Neeson and others with uneasy eyes.

"I didn't say you have a problem, but is it okay to cooperate with our investigation?"

"Of course it's okay."

Although these senior executives were somewhat reluctant, they dared not agree when they thought that this was David's order.

"Then let's go."

Nisenbaki and others took the senior executives of the Amazon branch downstairs and took the official car back to the bureau.

The incident of the Amazon Los Angeles branch was witnessed by so many people, and the news spread quickly, and then the media and netizens instantly exploded.

"Oh my god, wasn't it rumored that Director David was going to take a break to recuperate? Why did he suddenly take action, and such explosive news was released at the beginning?"

"Although he only summoned a group of senior executives of the Los Angeles branch of Amazon, since he has already taken action against the Los Angeles branch, it is equivalent to "declaring war" on the entire Amazon Group!"

"Hahaha, it is said that Amazon has not paid a penny in taxes for so many years. It's no wonder that Director David took action against him!"

"Amazon has never paid a penny in taxes. Is this true or false?"

"Really, in 2018, our former president dissed Amazon on Twitter for this, but it seemed that some force interfered with it later, and it eventually came to nothing."

"Is that so? That's going to be a good show!"

David has been playing badly for a while, causing many people to lose fun and become boring, and now suddenly such a big news has been revealed, which naturally makes these people excited instantly.

After learning that Amazon seemed to have never paid taxes for all these years, many of them expressed indignation.