On August 7, 2019, I received information from the advocacy group “Balance Our Tax Code” (www.balanceourtaxcode.com). They reported that Jeff Bezos, the founder and major stockholder of Amazon, had just sold $1.8 BILLION worth of Amazon stock.
He has to pay a modest amount of federal taxes, but — because Washington State does NOT have a capital gains tax.
Washington State has THE MOST REGRESSIVE tax system of any state in the U.S. We are one of only nine states that do NOT have capital gains tax and we are one of very few states that do NOT have an income tax. As a result, EXTREMELY RICH WASHINGTONIANS SKATE BY WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE of taxes to support the government and the economy that made them rich.
The “Balance Our Tax Code” organization estimated that Bezos probably would have paid about $162 MILLION in state taxes if we had a capital gains tax. All the rest of us have to make up the difference to balance the state’s budget so we can have schools, social services, environmental protection, justice, and everything else taxes pay for.
Please ask your state legislators to create a capital gains tax.