United states tax collector

"well said!"

"What Director David said is that the duty of the IRS is to collect taxes. Since you, Amazon, are suspected of having tax problems, you must get to the bottom of it!"

"Yes, support Director David!!!"

On the Internet and in front of the TV, many of David's supporters also applauded.

Yes, your Amazon influence is huge, but taxation is the foundation of a country. You can’t enjoy immunity just because you have great influence, right?

If everyone is as dumb as you, then why do you need the IRS?

This country's finances are already finished!

"Okay, next question..."

David pointed his finger at the KCBS reporter this time.

Unlike others, who couldn't wait to ask questions when called upon, this reporter said unhurriedly: "Director David, there has been a rumor on the Internet that in recent years In recent years, Amazon has not paid any taxes and has even received a lot of subsidies from the government. Is this true? "

"Yes, Amazon has indeed not paid any taxes to the IRS in recent years. From 2005 to 2021, they obtained a total of US$1.347 billion in tax subsidies by manipulating the tax policies of various states!"

In fact, this reporter's question was arranged by David in advance.

Because he knows very well that if he wants to change public opinion and make Amazon become the public enemy of the people, the best way is to tell the whole world that this company is ruthless.

A company as big as yours has refused to pay any taxes for so many years. No matter how good the excuse is, it cannot be justified, right?

"My goodness, Dumb Mason has really not paid any taxes in the past few years!"

"Fake Squid, it doesn't matter that he has never paid taxes, but he still relies on the policies of various states to obtain subsidies. This is too much!"

"Director David must investigate them severely, and then punish them severely, and make them spit out the taxes they have owed for so many years, including the principal and interest!"

"..."

Sure enough, as soon as David's words came out, the Internet went into a frenzy.

Although many people on the Internet have been saying that Amazon has not paid taxes in recent years, this news has not been officially confirmed, so some trolls who support Amazon can naturally go crazy.

But now that David from the IRS has come forward and admitted it himself, there is no way this is false, so netizens are naturally very angry.

Even some people who originally supported Duma Mason began to think that Duma Mason's actions were a bit unfair, and their stance on the team was wavering.

Lobby on the first floor of the Los Angeles Internal Revenue Service.

Most of the people at the scene were still immersed in the previous news and had not recovered. Suddenly, a commotion behind them forced them to turn and look behind.

"That's...Amazon's legal department is here!"

Although Amazon’s legal department is not like Disney, it has the title of the strongest legal department in the world.

However, as a giant company with a market value of nearly 2 trillion yuan, its legal department has not appeared in public many times, so many people recognized them at the scene.

And seeing Amazon's legal department coming, the Internet was once again abuzz.

Because now that Amazon's legal department is here, it means that the confrontation with the IRS has officially begun!

In this war between tax inspections and anti-tax inspections, who will win in the end?

This is naturally what many people on the Internet are looking forward to next.

David, who was under the spotlight, naturally saw the arrival of the Dumb Mason Legal Department, and a smile appeared on his lips at this moment.

Compared with the executives of Amazon's Los Angeles branch, the members of the legal department who came from Amazon's headquarters must have more internal secrets and black materials within the group.

As long as David conducts a careful review of them, he will definitely get more useful information!

“Okay everyone, that’s it for today’s press conference!”

The purpose of this press conference is to reduce the pressure of public opinion on the IRS. Now that this purpose has obviously been achieved, David will naturally stop talking nonsense.

After he got off the stage, he ordered Nissen: "Bring the legal department of Dumason to my office."

"Understood."

David returned to his office first, and three minutes after returning, five members of the Dumb Mason Legal Department, headed by Lakluwa, were brought in.

"Hello, Director David, my name is Lacroix, and I am the chief legal counsel of the Amazon Legal Department. This is my colleague Tomlinson, this is Wilbur, this is..."

After Lakluwa's introduction, David also extended his hand very kindly and shook hands with them one by one.

Lackroy opened the briefcase he was carrying, took out a thick stack of documents, placed it on the table, and then said: "Director David, since your IRS wants to launch a tax investigation against our group, then Of course we have to cooperate. These are the tax status of all regions of our group in the past five years. You can check it carefully..."

David pretended to pick up the information, but secretly he kept his eyes on Lakluwa from time to time.

After some inspection, a slight smile began to appear on his face.

If you want to say which department in a group has the most internal dirty information, it is definitely the Ministry of Justice.

Because for a group, the legal department is responsible for wiping the butt and resolving troubles.

And now Amazon's legal department is no exception.

Just from examining this Lakluwa, he discovered a lot of useful information.

For example, in 2017, the newly revised tax bill of the Internal Revenue Service added a new "tax deduction", which means that companies can build warehouses, R\u0026D centers, and use built factories, equipment, etc. to deduct taxes.

As soon as this policy was promulgated, Amazon immediately built a large number of factories and purchased a large amount of equipment in various states across the country. This move allowed them to obtain generous returns, which was a 40% reduction in value. percent tax.

However, the policy of tax deduction is also conditional.

For example, if you build a factory in Long Beach, Los Angeles, you must follow local policy requirements to promote local employment and economic conditions.

But then again, no matter how big and profitable Amazon is, the United States is so big and there are many remote places. It is impossible for factories in every place to meet local targets.

And how did Amazon do it?

They are very cunning. Aren't the factories in some places not up to standard? Then they use accounting methods. For example, the indicator given by the government in Los Angeles is 100 million. As an international city, Los Angeles is normal for overflow. of.

And if there is an overflow of 10 million to 20 million or more, they will transfer these overflow funds to factories such as Philadelphia that do not meet the standards. In this way, even if the local government's targets are met, they can obtain impairment losses. tax requirements.

If David wanted to make a fuss, it would be easy. He could send inspectors to make unannounced visits to factories across the country.

As mentioned before, tax deductions for value loss can be deducted through a series of methods such as building warehouses, R\u0026D centers, factories, and equipment.

Amazon has so many factories, R\u0026D centers, and warehouses across the country. There must be many equipment facilities, R\u0026D centers, and warehouses in unprofitable factories that are not up to standard.

As long as he sends someone to find out and record it, he can use this as a reason to accuse Dumbton of tax fraud.

But having said that, although Amazon is very clever in playing tax deduction, this is not its most disgusting way to avoid tax. What is most disgusting is its use of ‘operating loss deduction’.

In the United States, operating loss credits are carried forward for up to fifteen years.

According to the information obtained from the group of people in Lakluwa, it can be said that Dumason has applied this rule to the extreme.

For many years, they have not taken the initiative to make profits. Instead, they have used the money they earned to expand their business, invest in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, infrastructure, etc., and actively make losses.

In the 20 years since its founding in 1995, Amazon has lost billions of dollars. In the first eight years after it went public alone, it lost $3 billion.

The most recent loss was in 2014, when it lost $241 million.

According to data, Amazon still has $1.4 billion in federal tax credits on its books that can be used at will. This is disgusting.

As for how Amazon obtained government subsidies, David thought about it and felt that there was something to be done about it.

If you want to get government subsidies, you have to meet some indicators in each state. Regarding these indicators, Amazon seems to have adopted the previous method of tax deduction. He has to send someone to check it carefully, because he believes that in In this regard, Amazon must have violated regulations.

In the following time, David shifted his attention from Lakluwa to the remaining four members of the Mute Mason Legal Department.

As he examined these people in depth, his eyes gradually became brighter, because he seemed to have combined a very important message from these people.

In the past 20 years, Amazon’s business has been operating under a very strange premise, but few people have questioned it.

On the surface, Amazon is the lowest-priced option in the e-commerce market. At the same time, it provides "free shipping" services to more than 100 million Amazon members. However, it charges an annual membership fee of US$139, but this membership fee The fee is obviously not enough to cover the cost of its logistics department.

Just say that in 2021, Amazon’s logistics costs will reach 85 billion US dollars.

In terms of actual value, each Amazon customer must reach at least US$1,000 in membership fees to be able to maintain capital.

But Amazon’s free shipping membership fee is only $139 per year, which means Amazon has to subsidize tens of billions of dollars. So where does this money come from?

In other words, how can Amazon keep costs lowest and shipping free while still making money?

In fact, Amazon has implemented a series of clever schemes to incorporate the cost into the price of the goods as a "hidden tax", which means that "consumers" are paying for free shipping.

But consumers don’t know this, and Amazon doesn’t want them to know. Of course, they don’t want the IRS to know either.

Because if the IRS knows that Amazon is charging hidden taxes from users, and they have no reasonable explanation, they can be charged with tax evasion.

But that's not the most important thing.

The bottom line is Amazon's strategy is to use Prime to build, expand and strengthen barriers to entry, one result of which is that Amazon now has an overwhelming monopoly share of online shoppers.

Once it gains monopoly power, Amazon will lower prices by charging third-party sellers fees. As a third-party seller, you have to pay for listing on Amazon and use Amazon’s warehousing service, which is Amazon’s delivery service. , and advertising services.

If you don’t pay, you can’t get to the site locations where consumers click.

Therefore, online shoppers may not be real “customers” but “products” provided by Amazon to third-party sellers.

As for third-party sellers, they must pay their requirements and related fees to Amazon, otherwise they will lose their market access rights.

Currently, the total fees Amazon collects from third-party sellers has grown to nearly 50% of its revenue, and it is Amazon using this funds (totaling an estimated $123 billion last year) to pay for all services bundled with Prime. , including "free" shipping, video services, music services, Twitch, etc.

These third-party sellers, in turn, raise prices to consumers and then remit the money back to Amazon in the form of fees. Strictly speaking, this is not only suspected of tax evasion, but can even be characterized as money laundering in serious cases.

"Mute Mason, Mute Mason, you will feel better now!"

Through the examination of the people in the Legal Department of Dumasun, David can now be said to know the fate of this group, and all he needs to do is get practical evidence!

"What's wrong, Chief David?"

Looking at David's evil smile, Laquerua also asked blankly.

David put down the document in his hand and replied: "Nothing, I have already read the document. On the surface, there is indeed no big problem, but we still need to investigate the details."

Lakluwa and others looked at each other, and then the member of the legal department named Wilbur said insinuatingly: "Director David, all the tax data of our group in the past few years is already here. This should be nothing good. It’s been investigated, do you still have any questions?”

"Yes, Director David, if you still have any questions, just ask them directly. We will answer them directly for you on the spot. There is no need to trouble the IRS's manpower and material resources."

Another member also spoke and echoed.

"Whether there is a problem or not is not up to you, it's up to me. Go back and I will inform you of the results at any time!"

"That's...ok."

Having said this, what else could the five of them say? After looking at each other, they could only stand up and walked out of the office.