[wweidendorf]

While $1.43 billion may be the GAAP tax rate they record, in practice they did not pay anywhere near that much.

For the 2016 reporting period, cash taxes paid was recorded at $412 million, not the $1.43 billion you noted above. Given that, their effective cash tax rate was 10.6%, not the 36.7% you quoted.

Source: Page 22, AMZN 2016 10-K (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872417...)