Biden: ‘Amazon should start paying their taxes’

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday doubled down on his stance that Amazon should be paying more than they currently do in taxes.

“I don’t think any company, I don’t give a damn how big they are, the Lord almighty, should absolutely be in a position where they pay no tax and make billions and billions and billions of dollars,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said during “Squawk Box” interview. 

Biden’s response came after a question about whether Amazon, which is one of the few major companies profiting during the coronavirus pandemic, should be broken up, as his progressive former opponent and potential running mate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has proposed. 

“I think Amazon should pay their taxes,” Biden responded. It’s unclear whether or not the president is in support of breaking up the tech giant. 

Biden was criticized by Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during the Democratic primary race for being too friendly toward billionaires and giant companies, such as Amazon.

When asked for a comment regarding Biden’s comments Thursday, Amazon pointed to their response during a June Twitter dispute with Biden over the same topic, where Biden said “no company pulling in billions of dollars in profits should pay a lower tax rate than firefighters and teachers.”

“We’ve paid $2.6B in corporate taxes since 2016,” the company responded at the time. “We pay every penny we owe. Congress designed tax laws to encourage companies to reinvest in the American economy. We have. $200B in investments since 2011 & 300K US jobs. Assume VP Biden’s complaint is w/ the tax code, not Amazon.”

We’ve paid $2.6B in corporate taxes since 2016. We pay every penny we owe. Congress designed tax laws to encourage companies to reinvest in the American economy. We have. $200B in investments since 2011 & 300K US jobs. Assume VP Biden’s complaint is w/ the tax code, not Amazon. https://t.co/uPUv1Tzlma

— Amazon News (@amazonnews) June 13, 2019