Comment by frutiger

Comment by frutiger 4 days ago

4 replies

The child tax credit starts tapering off if your adjusted gross income is more than $200k single ($400k joint). If Bezos is reporting less than that due to other deductions then that’s truly impressive.

throwaway173738 4 days ago

It’s really simple. Loans don’t count as income so you use your stock to get guaranteed loans. And you don’t take most of your income on a W2 you take it in stock.

  • frutiger 4 days ago

    I know. I would still be impressed if Bezos’s w-2 income was below $400k.

    Edit: also you need to pay the loan back, and the income to pay it back is taxable. You can die with an outstanding loan, but i’m sure bezos lenders will structure the loan to make sure they get most of their money back.

    • NickC25 4 days ago

      Or you just get another loan from another party to pay the initial loan back.

      Bezos probably has an army of banks, private lenders, and private capital connections to effectively have a lifetime of loans against his Amazon shares.

      It's a pyramid scheme, except the guy at the top actually has the money and collateral.

      • frutiger 4 days ago

        These lenders will want some interest. The collateral is only useful if he defaults. If the collateral generates realized gains then those are taxed.