CNBC: Jeff Bezos says bottom half of earners should pay zero in income taxes

[TheProle]

Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos on Wednesday called for zero federal income taxes on the bottom half of earners.

The top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all the tax revenue, and the bottom half pay 3%, Bezos told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Box.”

“I don’t think it should be 3%,” Bezos said. “I think it should be zero.”

The bottom half of taxpayers had an adjusted gross income of nearly $54,000 in 2023, according to the Tax Foundation, citing the most recent IRS statistics. By contrast, households in the top 1% earned at least $676,000 of income that year.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/20/jeff-bezos-income-taxes.html

[Attilatheblond]

1. Easy for the class that can live in lavish gated communities

and ignore the reality of a Great Society left to become a rotting, derelict, 'Shithole Country'.

[Coventina]

2. How about you paying taxes, asshole?

[Deminpenn]

3. Bezos can hear the barbarians coming to the gates

I'm sure Bezos said nothing about him and his bazillionaire friends paying more.

As much as he tries, he can't stop the tidal wave of the huge reforms that will be coming his way when Dems control the House, Senate and WH in 2 years.

[Ferryboat]

4. At least Bezo recognizes that the rich has to toss the bottom half crumbs

Before the masses rise up and institute real tax reform.

[jmbar2]

5. Throw the peons crumbs, reduce their contributions to government programs - Just don't Tax us more.

Don't look at the man behind the screen.

[Traildogbob]

6. Who does

He propose will pay for the endless appetite of cash for trump, GQP et al? And never ending war?
Ball rooms, statues, Arches and monuments to the king. Or wrestling matches and parades. Or Golf trips. Or Politician’s salaries, health care and travel on the 6 months of vacation they get annually.

[Melon]

7. I think those on social security should not pay taxes.

[Iggo]

9. I'm 64 and I agree...lol.

[Iggo]

8. The top 1% pay 40% of not nearly enough.

Don’t fall for the flim-flam.

[Scrivener7]

10. And he and his cabal should make up the difference. No one needs a second billion.

[dickthegrouch]

11. I don't understand. Why isn't this a good thing?

I read that as saying that the bottom half of the current taxpayers (who only contribute about 3% of the total, anyway) should NOT be paying any taxes.

That seems like a good thing to me.

I have previously written that the tax allowance should be variable per district according to housing prices, and other fixed costs in that area. The same $15000(ish) taxation threshold applies across the entire country now, but fixed living costs are highly variable. Federal taxation makes no acknowledgement of that. Perhaps higher wages in those areas make up some of the difference, but ONLY if one is lucky enough to be earning that higher wage. Federal minimum wage is $7.50 an hour. I don't believe there's anywhere in the country that someone could exist (far less live) on that.

[Wounded Bear]

13. We need to raise incomes to where the "bottom half" can afford to pay taxes...

Exempting them adds more motivation to keep wages low.

Instead of exempting half the population, perhaps we should raise the minimum wage to a living wage.

I'm all for taxing the rich. Get on it, for sure. But I'm all for raising wages as well. It would also do wonders for Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.

[dickthegrouch]

14. Indirectly I was saying the same thing

Raise wages to reflect the real workers' contributions.
Raise the taxation threshold perhaps on a per-county basis to allow people a good lifestyle.
Housing costs to wages ratios in the 1960's were vastly different from those today.
Whether one is single or a family of many, the taxation threshold is punitive for most.

[haele]

12. Annual Taxes are not the issue for everyone living below the median income level -

Daily survival issues - like Food, Shelter, Utilities, Health and Dependant Care, Employment, Transportation - those are the things the average household under the median income care about.

Taxes at that level of income, whether it's a subsidized or retired households or a family business household, just don't have that much of a disruptive influence.

However, the inability for the government to equalize common resources for a generic household's ability to just survive, if not thrive does impact those "in poverty".

Jeff Bezos lives in a bubble, he has no idea what it's like to live in a poor or working household - it's remote; it's full of one and two dimensional literary characters (a bit more complex than NPCs) - like Tom Sawyer; all you need is pluck and a little luck, and you can overcome and succeed in life.

[City Lights]

15. Lookit Bozos, pretending to care about the unwealthy in America.

Bozos needs to pay up.

[senseandsensibility]

16. What constitutes the bottom half of earners?

What would that be for an average couple or household?