Florida Man: How Jeff Bezos Saved $1 Billion In Taxes This Year After His Move

Forbes

The Amazon founder sold nearly $14 billion worth of Amazon stock so far in 2024–more than any other U.S. billionaire. Here’s why he paid $1 billion less in taxes by moving to Florida.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2024/12/18/how-billionaire-amazon-founder-jeff-bezos-saved-taxes-this-year-florida/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, how Jeff Bezos saved an estimated $1 billion in taxes after moving to Florida

00:09Billionaire Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos announced his move from the Seattle

00:14area to Florida in late 2023 in a sentimental Instagram post, not mentioned that he would

00:21save a bundle in taxes.

00:23This past year alone, he likely saved an estimated $1 billion.

00:29Bezos, the world's second richest person as of January 1st, sold $13.6 billion worth

00:35of Amazon stock as of December 18th last year, more than the dollar amount sold by any other

00:41U.S. billionaire who's required to disclose transactions publicly.

00:46Before 2024's sales, it had been two years since Bezos had last sold stock.

00:51His pause began in January 2022, the same month Washington State, where he lived at

00:56the time, first enacted a 7% state tax on long-term capital gains of more than $250,000,

01:04which would include Amazon stock that Bezos has held for more than one year.

01:09In the latter half of 2023, he splashed out $234 million to buy three mansions on Indian

01:15Creek, a man-made barrier island known as Florida's billionaire bunker.

01:20He also registered to vote there and filed a previously unreported declaration of domicile

01:25in the state.

01:26Those were three critical steps to establish legal residency in Florida, which famously

01:31doesn't impose income, capital gains, or estate taxes.

01:36On February 7th, 2024, Bezos began selling shares, offloading $8.5 billion worth of Amazon

01:43stock in February alone.

01:45Then, in March, he filed a trading plan with the Securities and Exchange Commission to

01:50sell an additional 25 million shares, about 3% of his Amazon stake.

01:56He completed those sales in November for gross proceeds of an additional $5.1 billion.

02:03Had Bezos remained in Washington State, his 2024 share sales would have resulted in a

02:08$954 million state capital gains tax bill.

02:12That amount would have exceeded Washington State's net collections from the tax in the

02:17fiscal year that ended in June, which totaled $848 million.

02:23It's not like Bezos isn't paying any taxes.

02:26He very likely owes $3.2 billion in taxes to the federal government from those share

02:30sales, based on the top capital gains tax rate of 20% plus a 3.8% net investment income

02:37tax.

02:38Barring any offsets from charitable donations and other tax-minimizing moves, he and his

02:42money managers may have employed.

02:46There's a chance that Washington State could still ask Bezos to pay taxes there, even though

02:50he appears to have made all the right moves to switch his residency.

02:54The state could try to cite evidence that he has not fully moved away, according to

02:58Brian Carter, a tax partner at wealth management and consulting firm Plant Moran, who runs

03:03its family offices group.

03:05The kind of evidence officials might try to dig up includes whether or not he still has

03:09a primary care physician in state or holds any property.

03:13Based on Forbes' review, he still appears to own at least three homes in Washington.

03:18There is no record of a sale, but he could have unloaded it in an off-market transaction.

03:24Bezos is far from the only billionaire who's moved in search of more tax-friendly skies.

03:29Over the past two decades, Forbes has measured a dramatic uptick in members of the Forbes

03:33400 list of richest Americans who moved to Texas and Florida, states with no income,

03:39capital gains, or estate tax.

03:41The number of Forbes 400 members living in Florida more than doubled from 23 to 54 between

03:472003 and 2024, as the likes of hedge fund titans David Tepper and Ken Griffin, paychecks

03:54founder Tom Golisano, and interactive brokers Thomas Petterfie, all departed for the sunshine

04:00state.

04:02For full coverage, check out Phoebe Liu's piece on Forbes.com.

04:08This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:10Thanks for tuning in.

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