Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Sells Nearly $2 Billion Worth of Amazon Stock

The world’s richest man just got richer.

Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos sold $1.8 billion worth of Amazon stock in the past week according to financial filings.

The leader of the e-commerce giant sold 905,456 shares of Amazon for $1.84 billion as the company sailed past the $1
trillion market cap recently.

Bezos began selling shares on Jan. 31st according to the filings and continued through Feb. 3rd. The sales were executed under a pre-arranged trading plan.

It was also revealed that Amazon has only paid $162 million in federal income tax despite making over $13 billion in profits.

“We follow all applicable federal and state tax laws, and our U.S. taxes are a reflection of our continued investments, compensation of our employees, and the current tax rules,” Amazon wrote in a blog post on Jan. 31st.

The company’s 10-K filing for 2019 said the company paid $162 million in federal income taxes, with more than $914 million in federal income taxes deferred.

Deferred taxes allow companies to postpone payments based on accounting practices. While Amazon’ balance sheet reports just over $1 billion in federal income taxes, the number paid last year was less than $200 million.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and have not been compensated for this article.