American tax officials

Chapter 310 Dumbasson, you're pretty arrogant!

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

About two hours after ending his call with Sean, David's phone rang again, and his heart jumped when he saw that the caller ID showed Donald's number.

Could it be that the efforts of the Onsa Group have yielded results?

Is this efficient?!

Without giving it much thought, he immediately pressed the answer button with anticipation: "Deputy Director Donald."

"David, regarding whether to transfer you to headquarters, all the senior executives are now on the same page, but you have to complete a task first."

"What mission?"

"Amazon is done!"

"Take care of Amazon?"

David was a little confused.

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

But then again, although Amazon is a behemoth in the United States, there are other companies of similar size. So why did the top brass of the General Administration specifically name and ask him to target this one?

"This guy's a real handful. I'll send you the information about Amazon later. If you can handle it, you'll be transferred to headquarters immediately!"

"Fine, I accept!"

Amazon is a behemoth company, and it will definitely take a lot of effort to take them down. However, since the General Administration said that as long as he can get things done, he can be transferred to the General Administration immediately, it is worth doing no matter what.

Shortly after the call ended, David received a document in his email containing information about Dumbasson.

After reading more of the document, he finally understood why the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television had specifically asked him to deal with Amazon, the e-commerce behemoth.

According to Amazon's financial reports over the past few years...

In 2017, Amazon's revenue was $1778.7 billion, its profit was $56 billion, its federal tax rate was -2.5%, it paid no taxes, and received a tax refund of $1.37 million from the government.

In 2018, Amazon's revenue was $2582.2 billion and its profit was $112 billion. With a federal tax rate of -1.2%, it paid no taxes and collected $1.29 million in taxes from the government.

In 2019, Amazon's revenue was $2805 billion and its net profit was $116 billion. Perhaps under pressure, Amazon finally paid taxes in 2019, but the amount was not very high, totaling $1.62 million in federal taxes.

As for 20 and 21, due to pressure, Amazon also voluntarily paid some taxes.

However, after adding up all the taxes from 2017 to 2021, Amazon's actual tax payment is still 0, because it has been studying tax policies every year and receiving tax refunds from the government. In other words, in the past few years, Amazon has not only not paid taxes, but has also received a lot of subsidies by taking advantage of tax policies and loopholes.

"Is this Amazon really that outrageous?"

David had not conducted any investigation into Amazon, but now, seeing the information sent by the General Administration, he realized just how outrageous Amazon really was.

As is well known, there is a famous saying in America: "Only death and taxes are unavoidable."

However, this statement doesn't seem to apply to Amazon now.

It's important to know that in the United States, most businesses, no matter how powerful or influential, still have to pay some kind of fee to the IRS.

Like Apple, although they avoid most of their taxes by using overseas registration and policy measures, they still pay at least several billion dollars in taxes to the IRS every year.

And you, Amazon, are different. Not only do you not contribute a single penny, but you also take money out of the IRS's pocket every year.

This is more than just a troublemaker in Donald's eyes; he's practically an assassin!

In order to fully understand Amazon's tax avoidance methods, David spent the next period of time examining the document almost word by word.

After more than an hour of research, he had a general understanding of Amazon's tax avoidance methods.

First, in order to maintain its status as a technological superpower, the United States encourages innovation and development, so R&D investment can be taxed. Amazon's R&D investment accounts for about 7% of its employee wages and benefits, which has always placed it among the top tech giants. It avoids 23% of taxes every year by relying on R&D tax breaks.

Secondly, before 2005, Amazon began to develop its European business. At that time, the United States still taxed globally, with a federal tax rate of 35%. Foreign income repatriated had to be taxed in the United States in order to reduce foreign taxes and keep profits overseas. Since Amazon completed the business restructuring in the European market in 2006, it established a tax avoidance structure of an American-Luxembourg operating entity-Luxembourg shell company.

This is similar to the tax avoidance methods used by Apple and most companies.

Finally, the deduction is made by defaulting on stock options.

Many companies offer stock options to senior employees in lieu of salary, and the value of the stock options can be used as a cost deduction for the company.

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

Most companies operate by first buying back shares and driving up the stock price before distributing them to employees.

Amazon, on the other hand, does not buy back stocks from the stock market; instead, it prints them out of thin air.

The real culprits for this behavior are Amazon's shareholders, as their existing stock will be devalued as Amazon issues more stock to its employees.

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

Over the past 20 years, Amazon has achieved an annualized return of 37%, and its stock price has increased more than 800 times.

By issuing free stock options to its employees, Amazon offset tens of billions of dollars in federal taxes in 2018 alone.

As for why Amazon was able to receive a tax refund, that remains to be seen.

Like China, many states and localities in the United States offer tax incentives to attract investment or businesses.

As a result, Amazon leveraged its reputation and scale to invest heavily in computers, data centers, and warehousing and distribution centers across the United States.

According to statistics, between 2005 and 2021, Amazon received more than $13.47 billion in tax subsidies from local governments through this method.

"That's a really good method!"

After learning about Amazon's tax avoidance methods, David couldn't help but admire the company and understood why the tax authorities insisted that he deal with this troublesome company first.

It's estimated that the tax authorities have long been itching to get their hands on Amazon, but they've only tolerated it because the company is good at legal tax avoidance and has the support of the Freemasons.

Now, the Onsa Group is clearly putting a lot of pressure on the General Administration. And when the General Administration sees that the Onsa Group is determined to take action against Freemasonry, they will directly target Amazon, which will relieve them of their pent-up anger after so many years!

Gathering his thoughts, David picked up the phone: "Have Bucky Simonsnesen come to my office."

Five or six minutes later, there was a knock on the door, and three people walked in one after another, looking at David with an expression that said, "We're waiting for your orders."

Have you heard about Amazon's tax situation?

"Dumb Amazon...?"

The three paused for a moment, and then Simmons spoke first: "Although I haven't looked into it seriously, back in 18, our former president posted a tweet about Amazon. At the time, he accused Amazon, such a large company, of not only not paying taxes, but also repeatedly taking advantage of the government. He even said that he would pass a bill to target Amazon, but it never came to fruition. Now that I think about it, it must have been suppressed. After all, as the world's largest e-commerce giant, Amazon's network of relationships must be extraordinary."

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

Upon hearing this, Bucky also raised a question.

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

However, in his view, such a large company should at least pay some taxes to save face for the IRS, even if it doesn't have to pay the full amount honestly.

How come now it seems like we're the ones who benefited from their situation?

Is there no law left?

Are there any laws?

"Yes, I heard that by manipulating local tax policies, they can not only avoid a large amount of tax every year, but also get a considerable amount of tax subsidies from the local treasury."

"Really?"

"These are the tax documents from the General Administration regarding Amazon. You'll understand once you come and take a look!"

Hearing David's words, Bucky didn't bother to ask any more questions and rushed to the computer. Simons and Nixon were not far behind and followed closely behind.

About ten minutes later, Bucky, having roughly finished reading, was furious and burst out cursing, "Fuck you! This Amazon is outrageous! Not only have they not paid a single tax in all these years, but they've also taken so much money from us?"

Although he had not investigated Amazon's tax situation, this was a document sent from the head office, so it was definitely correct.

The document detailed Amazon's annual tax situation, concluding that Amazon paid zero taxes and received $13.47 billion in tax subsidies. Such an outrageous and outrageous ratio was bound to infuriate him.

"That bastard really dares to do that!"

"Director, does the General Administration's sending of this document mean... we should take action against Amazon?"

David nodded.

"Alright, if that's the case, then the good days for Dumb Amazon are over!"

Although Amazon is a behemoth in the United States, even powerful entities like the Disney family, UBS, and the Illuminati have fallen to them, so Nixon is naturally very confident in dealing with them.

"Oh, by the way, I have something to tell you. Headquarters said that once we've dealt with Amazon, we can immediately enter Headquarters. So you understand?"

The three men, who had been gnashing their teeth in hatred for Dumbasson, were taken aback upon hearing this, and a surge of excitement welled up within them.

To be honest, the three of them were quite disappointed when they went to the General Administration to report on their work but failed to get a transfer order from the General Administration.

Now, upon hearing this promise, their disappointment vanished instantly, and they were filled with renewed vigor, eager to immediately defeat the dumbass and use him as a stepping stone to enter the headquarters.

"Alright, stop standing there! Let's invite the heads of Amazon's Los Angeles branch back for coffee!"

"clear!"

Without further ado, the three of them strode out of the office with swift and decisive steps.

Long Beach, Financial Centre, Amazon branch office building.

It was 3 p.m., and the employees were still working diligently when suddenly a group of people burst in, breaking the tranquility.

"The IRS wants to see your Amazon branch manager, CFO, and tax director... come with us for an investigation!"

Upon hearing that it was the IRS, many employees present showed expressions of fear. When they realized that the leader was none other than the "Big Three" under David, the head of the Los Angeles IRS, everyone's hearts suddenly skipped a beat.

In everyone's current understanding, Simmons, Bucky, and Nissen are the embodiment of David and represent his own will.

Given the previous incidents involving the Sackler family, the Disney family, Swiss banks, and cryptocurrencies, it's no small matter that David is now targeting Amazon.

It definitely won't be small!

"What's wrong? What's wrong? Is there a problem with Amazon's taxes?"

Such a commotion naturally startled the senior management of Amazon's Los Angeles branch. They all came out of their offices, looking at Nissen and his team with uneasy eyes.

"We didn't say you had a problem, but would it be alright if you cooperated with our investigation?"

"That...of course, no problem."

Although these high-ranking officials were somewhat unwilling, they dared not disobey David's orders.

"Let's go then."

Nixon Bucky and his team, along with a group of high-ranking officials from the Amazon branch, went downstairs and returned to the bureau in an official car.

The incident involving Amazon's Los Angeles branch was witnessed by so many people that the news spread quickly, and the media and netizens immediately went wild.

"My goodness, wasn't it rumored that Director David was going to take a break to recuperate? How come he suddenly made a move, and with such explosive news right off the bat?"

"Although it only involved summoning a group of senior executives from Amazon's Los Angeles branch, taking action against the Los Angeles branch is tantamount to 'declaring war' on the entire Amazon Group!"

"Hahaha, it's said that this dumbson hasn't paid a single penny in taxes all these years, no wonder Chief David took action against him!"

"Is it true that Amazon has never paid a single penny of tax?"

"Seriously, back in 18, our former president even dissed Amazon on Twitter about this, but it seems that some force interfered later, and it eventually fizzled out."

"Is that so? Well, that's going to be interesting!"

David had been slacking off for a while, which had made many people lose interest and become quite bored. But now that such a big news story has suddenly broken out, it has naturally excited these people instantly.

After learning that Amazon apparently had never paid taxes over the years, many people expressed righteous indignation.

(End of this chapter)