Jeff Bezos is taking a position that will scramble the usual political calculus: the billionaire founder of Amazon and Blue Origin says the bottom half of American earners should pay no federal income tax — and he intends to make that case directly to President Trump.
'The bottom half of income earners in this country pay only 3% of the taxes,' Bezos told CNBC. 'I think it should be zero.'
To put a human face on the argument, Bezos pointed to a hypothetical health care worker. 'Why is a nurse in Queens who makes $75,000 a year paying more than $1,000 a month in taxes?' he asked. 'We shouldn't be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington. They should be sending her an apology.'
The IRS data supports the core claim. According to Tax Foundation analysis of IRS figures, the bottom half of taxpayers — those earning roughly under $54,000 in 2023 — accounted for about 12% of total adjusted gross income but paid just 3% of all federal income taxes. The average household in that group paid approximately $913 in federal income tax for the year. When refundable tax credits are included, the bottom 40% of taxpayers already pay effectively no federal income tax on average, according to CNBC.
Bezos, whose net worth is estimated at north of $280 billion, acknowledged the proposal would represent only 'a small amount of money for the government.' He framed advocacy as a civic duty: 'It is part of our job as citizens and as business leaders to share our ideas. And this one would actually help people.'
The top 1% of taxpayers, by contrast, accounted for nearly 21% of total adjusted gross income in 2023 and paid roughly 38% of all federal income taxes that year. Bezos said he is open to debating what constitutes a fair burden for high earners, but warned that 'vilification is the thing that's just the distraction.'
He was equally blunt about government efficiency — or the lack of it. Pointing to New York City's public school system, Bezos said: 'If we ran Amazon the way New York City runs their school system, your packages would take six weeks to arrive. We'd have to charge you a $100 delivery fee. And then when the package did finally arrive, it'd have the wrong item in it anyway.' His conclusion: 'You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not gonna help that teacher in Queens.'
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani pushed back on X, writing: 'I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ.'
Bezos's own tax history has drawn scrutiny. A 2021 ProPublica investigation found that in 2007 and 2011 he paid no federal income tax, in part because investment losses outweighed reported income. ProPublica calculated his so-called true tax rate at 0.98% between 2014 and 2018.
The market has already voted on the underlying logic. When roughly 76 million American households are taxed on income that barely registers in federal receipts, the administrative cost of collection may well exceed the revenue collected — a textbook case of government machinery running for its own sake. Bezos is not proposing a handout; he is proposing that Washington stop taking money it doesn't need from people who can't afford to give it. That is a free-enterprise argument, and it deserves a serious hearing in the current tax debate. The spending problem he identifies — bureaucratic inefficiency that no tax hike can cure — is the harder conversation, and the one Washington most reliably avoids.
