Several of the richest Americans have paid zero income tax in some years, according to an investigative report published Tuesday that comes as Washington weighs new proposals to address tax avoidance by the wealthiest individuals and companies.
The report, by New York-based journalism nonprofit ProPublica, showed Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos paid no income tax in 2007 and 2011, while Tesla chief Elon Musk avoided all payments in 2018.
Others who paid nothing to the Internal Revenue Service in some years included news industry billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, activist investor billionaire Carl Icahn, and philanthropist and financial giant George Soros.
ProPublica says the billionaires did nothing illegal in their tax declarations, but employed tax-avoidance strategies “beyond the reach of ordinary people.”
They also benefited from the way taxable income is defined in the US tax code, since it does not take into account the growing value of assets like stock and property, and only taxes proceeds from sales of those items.
The report comes days after G7 finance ministers endorsed a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15 percent, one of several tax proposals aimed at ensuring profitable multinationals pay their fair share.
Other efforts include Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren’s initiative to tax the super-wealthy, including the value of their stock holdings and homes, rather than focusing on income alone.
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