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

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 40% of all the tax revenue, and the bottom half pay 3%, Bezos told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin.

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

Bezos’ comments come as a number of Democratic states explore higher taxes on the wealthy.

The average income tax rate in 2023 was 14.1%, according to a Tax Foundation analysis of the latest IRS data. The top 1% of taxpayers paid a 26.3% average rate, seven times higher than the 3.7% average rate paid by the bottom half of taxpayers.

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