Fantastic explanation of the subtleties of the tax code and how Amazon appears to pay such low taxes. Thanks for that!

As an Amazon investor I am sure I have a bit of rose tint in my glasses, but I would caution you in explaining that Amazon goes on infrastructure binges to minimize or eliminate taxes. I am aure Amazon is like any other company and tweaks expenses or timing of spend in order to optimize taxes... but I believe the vast majority of Amazon's expenditures are driven by a specific strategic need...

So a perfect example is that to manage their increasing shipments of products, Amazon needed to build warehouses. To get products to people next day, they had to build warehouses close to the customer. To improve reliability of delivery, they bought their own delivery vans, trucks, planes, and ships.... These are the reasons for the huge capital expenditures. Not taxes.

But that's a minor quibble. Your article was really well done, easy to understand for someone like me who has a coronary each tax season...

;)

S.D.