[quuquuquu]

Amazon decided to "re-invest" all profits back into equipment and etc for the business. Thus there are very few profits to tax.

Wal-Mart decided to what, I guess keep all the cash on hand or something. I didn't look up their 10K or 10Qs, but that's what I assume is happening.

I'm glad Amazon doesn't pay that much in taxes. 609B in tax money per year goes to the US Military, which has been responsible for more death and destruction on this planet than could ever be imagined previously.

So, thank you Amazon for making sure the warmongers don't get too drunk off of your success.

[eadmund]

> I'm glad Amazon doesn't pay that much in taxes. 1.2T in tax money per year goes to the US Military, which has been responsible for more death and destruction on this planet than could ever be imagined previously.

That's arrant nonsense. Stalin's Holodomor killed 7-10 million people, more than the U.S. military has ever killed, and it starved millions more almost to death. Mao's Great Leap Forward resulted in the deaths of 15-30 million people, more still.

Moreover, the U.S. military is not currently responsible for wanton death and destruction. It has spent the last decade and a half trying to support civilian government and the rule of law both at home & abroad.

[virtualized]

Bombing civilians and giving weapons to terrorist organizations really helps to support civilian governments and the rule of law.

[maxerickson]

Walmart currently pays $2 a year in dividends to about 3 billion outstanding shares.

So over a few years they have paid tens of billions in dividends (and have done share buybacks in addition to that).

[theandrewbailey]

A lot more tax money goes to non-military parts of the government[0], like welfare and education. I'm not happy that Amazon doesn't pay its fair share.

[0] https://www.usafacts.org/government-finances/spending

[cjarrett]

Seems bizarre to only think taxes go into the Military Industrial Complex. I mean, sure they take their cut--but I'd like to think that our taxes go towards maintaining our civil society as well!

Edit: Seems very much cutting off your nose to spite your face, if one is 'happy' a corporation isn't paying taxes

[quuquuquu]

Per my other comment, the military's cut is 16% of 3.8 trillion.

Energy, Environment, and Science take a combined 2%.

Social Security and Medicare take a combined 60% (!), which are funded by entirely separate taxes (payroll taxes). Amazon still pays those.

Trust me, you don't want a corporation paying income taxes.

It just results in dead Iraqis and global surveillance.

[ams6110]

What's not fair? They are following the law.

[a_humean]

Fairness (distributive) != Lawfulness

Justice != Lawfulness - contested

Justice ≈ Fairness - contested, but developed world's post-war political-economies are based upon this either explicitly or implicitly. A lately weakened norm (post-Thatcher/Reagan) that Amazon and others are breaking further.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice/

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-virtue/

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-distributive/

[quuquuquu]

Amazon can't escape paying Medicare and Social Security taxes. So, they are definitely paying into that, along with everyone else who pays payroll taxes.

So, if you exclude those two things from the budget [0], you'll see that military expenses and interest on debt greatly outweigh education and NASA and etc.

Now I personally think Amazon is a great source of good in this world, compared to Lockheed Martin or Halliburton [1]. So if those guys aren't paying anything in taxes, I am biased, they should be paying more, not Amazon.

[0] https://media.nationalpriorities.org/uploads/total_spending_...

[1] they make missiles and weapons that kill people wholesale.