Another record! Bezos, the world's richest man, has a net worth of US$211.2 billion without paying income tax for 5 years

According to the Forbes Real-time Rich List, Microsoft was cancelled by the US Department of Defense. Good news about $10 billion cloud project contracts boosted by Amazon .The stock price closed up 4.7% on Tuesday, pushing the world's richest man Jeff Bezos' net worth to a record US$211.2 billion.

  Bezos officially stepped down as Amazon's CEO on July 5, and the new company's day-to-day management to Amazon is also the second CEO Andy Jassy (Andy Jassy), who also received more than $200 million in equity incentives.

Zero taxes from 2007 to 2011

The newly exposed U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) confidential tax documents show that in 2007 and 2011, Amazon CEO and billionaire Jeff Bezos (Jeff Bezos) did not pay any federal income tax.

The documents show that in the past two years, Bezos' declared investment losses exceeded the total income from various sources , including stock dividends and wages, thus avoiding the payment of federal income tax.

In the years when Bezos paid federal income tax from 2006 to 2018, he reported total income of 6.5 billion U.S. dollars, and paid a total of about 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in income tax, at a tax rate of approximately 21.5%. The reported income did not include a substantial increase in his net assets. According to "Forbes" data, through his Amazon shares, his net worth increased by $127 billion during this period.

Most of the wealth of billionaires like Bezos and Bill Gates does not come from annual income, but mainly from the stocks they hold. For example, Bezos holds a 10.3% stake in Amazon, valued at approximately $170 billion. As Amazon’s stock price fluctuates, Bezos has been working closely with Tesla in recent years. CEO Elon Musk competes for the position of the world's richest man. At present, he has at least $19 billion in wealth that has nothing to do with his Amazon shares.



Bezos doesn't have to pay taxes on the wealth of Amazon's stock price rise. This part of the wealth does not have to be taxed before the stock is sold and realized.

Bezos had previously sold some of his shares and obtained huge profits. Earlier this year, he sold $5 billion in Amazon stock. In August 2020 and August 2019, he also sold $3.1 billion and nearly $2 billion in stocks, respectively. Bezos has said that about $1 billion in stock will be sold every year to fund his own space exploration company, Blue Origin. It is unclear how he paid taxes on these stock sales.




  Representatives of Bezos did not respond to the news.

On July 5, local time, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos officially stepped down as the company's CEO, and his successor was Andrew R. Jassy, ​​CEO of the company's cloud computing business.

Some media quoted sources as saying that even if he resigns as CEO, Bezos will still have a huge impact on Amazon in the future. He is Amazon's largest individual shareholder , long-term mentor of the new CEO, and company executive chairman.

In 2018, Bezos topped the Forbes list of the world's richest people. According to Forbes, as of press time, Bezos is still the world's richest man, worth nearly 20,200 million US dollars. After resigning , Bezos will board a spacecraft made by the "Blue Origin" company he invested in on July 20 for space travel.

According to documents submitted by Amazon to the SEC on July 2, Jassi will be promoted to CEO on July 5, and the board of directors will also elect Jassi as a director of the company. According to the stock incentive plan implemented by the company in 1997, Amazon awarded Jiaxi a stock award for 61,000 shares of the company's common stock, which will be honored within ten years. According to Amazon's share price of $3510.98, this reward is worth more than $214 million.

In February of this year, Bezos said that he would step down as the company's CEO in the third quarter of this year. Regarding the reasons for resignation, Bezos stated in an internal employee letter that serving as Amazon's CEO is a matter of great responsibility, and is extremely energy-consuming, and it is difficult to focus on other things. After serving as the executive chairman of Amazon's board of directors, he will continue to participate in Amazon's major affairs, and has the energy to invest in Day 1 Fund , Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, Washington Post and his other affairs.

Bezos established the Cadabra online bookstore in 1995 and later renamed Cadabra to Amazon. Amazon gradually expanded its business scope from the previous books to the entire category.

However, the outside world also has different views on Bezos's resignation.

It is reported that Bezos's resignation is also related to antitrust. Bezos stepped down as CEO at a critical moment for Amazon. The new crown epidemic has led to an increase in demand for online shopping, and Amazon's profits and recruitment have also surged. But the company's explosive growth has attracted the attention of regulators. Foreign media said that once the richest man no longer at the helm of the company, Amazon can better withstand scrutiny, and stepping down will also help protect Bezos from criticism from some legislators.

In the past year, Amazon has received antitrust investigations from the United States, Germany, Spain and other countries.

Amazon, which was founded 26 years ago, also ushered in its second CEO after founder Bezos stepped down as CEO. Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and has held various leadership positions. Since serving as Senior Vice President from April 2006 to April 2016, he has been leading Amazon Web Services and has served as CEO since April 2016.

The appointment of Jassy also means that the importance of AWS in Amazon's business system has become more prominent.

According to Amazon’s financial report for the first quarter of 2021, Amazon’s sales in the first quarter of 2021 reached US$108.5 billion, an increase of 44% from US$75.5 billion in the same period last year. Among them, AWS sales accounted for 12.4% of the company's sales in the first quarter. Although sales accounted for a small proportion, AWS contributed nearly half of operating income. AWS’s operating income in the first quarter was US$4.16 billion, and Amazon’s total operating income in the fourth quarter was US$8.86 billion, with AWS accounting for 47%.

Bezos previously stated in the financial report that AWS has become a technology company with annual sales of 54 billion U.S. dollars. Customers include Airbnb and McDonald's. And Volkswagen etc.

  
Source: Sina Technology, China Business News

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