Does Amazon really not pay its taxes and force employees to work in poor condition?

The controversy started in late March 2018, when President Donald Trump tweeted that Amazon doesn’t pay its taxesproperly.

His tweet read: “I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election. Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!”

Now, of course, coming from President Donald Trump, a pathological liar, the authenticity of this claim was debatable. When looked at the matter, the fact is that tax structure in different States isn’t very clear and transparent. Amazon didn’t collect taxes on the behalf of third-party sellers. And it didn’t collect few local taxes. This gives it an advantage over the brick-mortar retailers.

Although Amazon now collects sales tax in all 45 states, according to an analysis, the gap between the actual tax rate that some local tax jurisdictions impose and what Amazon collects are as much as 7.5 percent.

Of course, there’s a lot more to this calculation and plenty more complexities exist in understanding the tax structure and how much Amazon pays. However, it certainly cannot be denied that the second-trillion dollar US public company (Yes, Amazon crossed that mark recently) have a very clean sheet. There are a lot of inconsistencies in how it pays taxes—and not just in the USA but also in other countries. For instance, there’s an ongoing dispute between Amazon and French authorities over illegal tax advantage, with France seeking nearly $250 million from the e-commerce giant.

So, again, under the rug, it might be very well that Amazon ispaying less tax. Or perhaps, under different loopholes, it’s saving a lot in taxes.

But before concluding, it must also be noted that the controversy of Amazon not paying taxes might well be the propaganda of the right wing. In fact, if you look closely, only the right-wing media outlets have picked this issue religiously, including Fox news. Why?

The founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, also owns Washington Post. And WP, on many occasions, has been critical of President Donald Trump. And Trump has voiced his opinion against the news outlet, calling it “fake” and “phony”. So, his March tweet, attacking Amazon over tax issues might be him attacking Jeff Bezos for the editorial of Washington Posts.

(Courtesy: CNBC)

Bottom line: without an expert scrutiny, one simply cannot claim that Amazon is (or is not) cheating on taxes.

Now coming to the second part of your question: Amazon’s treatment of employees.

The answer is sweet and simple. Except for those who are based in its headquarters and flagship warehouses, Amazon doesn’t treat the employees well. There have been countless complains over the years how the e-commerce poorly treats the workforce, forcing them to overwork. Only recently, a report on The Verge claimed that Amazon warehouse workers skip bathroom breaks because of high fulfilment demands.

(Courtesy: Breitbart)

Not just that, the news of Amazon employees getting paid very less is widespread. On many levels, Amazon has been silently killing employees’ rights in the glam of being “innovative” and “leading”. Sadly, no renowned groups (government or no) has made this a big enough issue.

Clearly, the e-commerce has exploited a lot for blood and sweat to build its trillion-dollar structure. Hopefully, someone, someday, ensures Amazon employees are treated well.