And there's more than enough blame to go around

Posted on: February 16, 2019 at 18:41:59 CT

The Federal Tax Code has been used by both parties to influence behavior by both corporate and individual taxpayers for many, many years.

For example, the provisions that allow individuals to deduct the interest on home mortgage loans and the property taxes paid on their homes are incentives for individuals to purchase homes. Similarly, the various education credits are incentives for individuals to pursue college educations (they are also incentives to Universities and their employees).

The two largest business credits are the Investment Tax Credit and the related Accelerated Depreciation provisions that have come and gone from time to time to stimulate economic activity and the research and development credit to stimulate technological advancements.

Amazon most likely is paying no income taxes for 2017 and 2018 because it has utilized the research and development credit.

And one could make the argument that Amazon might well have not been able to expand and improve its services as rapidly if it had not been able to take advantage of the research and development credit.