Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the fourth-richest man in the world, says low earners in the US should pay no tax.
"1% of taxpayers pay 40% of all the tax revenue; the bottom half pay only 3%. I think it should be zero," Bezos said in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
"There's something very powerful about zero."
During the interview, Bezos repeatedly criticized taxation on lower-income workers, using the example of a "nurse in Queens earning $75,000."
Speaking from his Blue Origin rocket facility in Florida, Bezos said the US in 2026 is a "tale of two economies."
"You have a bunch of people in this country who are doing really well, but you also have a bunch of people in this country who are struggling," Bezos said.
He was nodding to the current K-shaped economy: many wealthy Americans have benefited from a prolonged stock-market boom and surging real estate prices in recent years, while others have been squeezed by stubborn inflation, onerous interest rates, and an affordability crisis.
"Some people talk about making the tax system more progressive," Bezos said. "How about we start by having the nurse in Queens not pay taxes?"
"Why is a nurse in Queens who makes $75,000 a year paying more than $1,000 a month in taxes? That's $1,000 a month that could help with rent, groceries, or anything."
He later used the example of an Amazon worker in New York making around $50,000 a year, calling the idea of taxing them "absurd."
"Why are you taxing them so much? I really am puzzled by this."
Later, when asked about the potential for a universal basic income, Bezos returned to his nurse analogy.
"Instead of universal basic income, how about we stop taxing a nurse making $75,000?"
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for a registered nurse across New York, Newark, and Jersey City is roughly $120,000, while vocational nurses, who generally have a lower level of education, make $75,000.
Bezos' personal taxes
Bezos' comments are the latest in a heated debate over a proposed billionaire tax in California, intended to raise funds to offset federal cuts to health services for lower-income people.
The one-time, 5% tax would be levied on their worldwide net worth, spanning assets such as stocks, art, businesses, and vehicles, but not directly held real estate.
Bezos' personal fortune stood at $279 billion as of Tuesday's close, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
His net worth mostly comprises a roughly 8% stake in Amazon, one of the world's largest e-commerce and cloud-computing company with a $2.8 trillion market capitalization as of Tuesday's close.
Like many billionaires, Bezos has been accused of not paying his fair share of taxes and not paying his workers a living wage. Citing leaked IRS data on Bezos' tax returns, ProPublica reported in 2021 that Bezos didn't pay any federal income tax in 2007 or 2011 despite already being a billionaire.
"If people want me to pay more billions right, then let's have that debate, but don't pretend that that's going to solve the problem," Bezos told CNBC. "You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not going to help that teacher in Queens. I promise you."
Bezos has repeatedly underscored the value he says he has created for society. In his last shareholder letter as CEO, he estimated that in 2020, Amazon created $301 billion in total value for its shareholders, employees, third-party sellers, and customers.
