Jeff Bezos Saved $6.2 Billion In Taxes Since 2017 — Experts Say Trump's Proposed Hike Won't Touch Capital Gains Loophole - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Amazon AMZN founder Jeff Bezos saved $6.2 billion in taxes since 2017. According to an April report by the Institute for Policy Studies, Athena, and PowerSwitch Action. The capital-gains break that produced that haul may dodge President Donald Trump's latest plan to hike levies on America's biggest paychecks.

Trump reportedly asked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to craft a 39.6% bracket for annual incomes above $2.5 million, according to the New York Times. However, specialists argue the move nicks salaries while leaving stock-driven fortunes—where billionaires stash most wealth—largely untouched for now and again.

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Capital Gains Cushion

Sarah Anderson, program director at the progressive Institute for Policy Studies, said during an April 24 briefing that Bezos would have owed the Treasury $6.2 billion had capital gains been taxed like wages under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a law set to expire next year. Her team tallied roughly $36.7 billion in Amazon share sales fueling that savings.

“I’m not a big fan of doing that,” Johnson told Fox News on April 15, rejecting the proposed tax hike, adding, "We're the Republican Party and we're for tax reduction.

Populist pressure is also rising outside Capitol Hill. Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said at the Semafor World Economy Summit on April 23 that the current tax regime is "not sustainable" and insisted any fix "has to be tax increases on the wealthy," sparking a critical response from anti-tax groups.

"It's largely symbolic," said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, adding the bracket tweak "won't have a significant revenue effect and certainly not a significant effect on inequality," he told Fortune.

The reason is simple math. Bezos' official paycheck in 2019 was $81,840 while he ran Amazon. Meta Platforms META CEO Mark Zuckerberg opted for a symbolic annual salary of $1, and Tesla TSLA CEO Elon Musk waived his salary entirely.

Their fortunes come from shares that enjoy a 20% long-term gains rate and can sit untaxed if never sold.

Keeping that concession would also widen Washington's budget hole. According to an April analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center, extending the remaining 2017 tax cuts could swell deficits by around $4.1 trillion over a decade.

Skepticism is already surfacing in the Senate. Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-ID) told radio host Hugh Hewitt on May 9 he is "not excited about the proposal," reflecting wider GOP unease.

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