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Monday, November 21, 2016

Trump threatened 'such problems' for Amazon, but Jeff Bezos has little to worry about

Try to buy signature men's wear from Donald Trump's corporate website, and you'll be directed to Amazon.com, where a navy blue necktie will cost you $29.99 and a cashmere blue coat runs close to $110.
It's the same Amazon that Trump harshly criticized during his campaign, saying it operated a monopoly with an unfair tax shelter that's somehow propped up by CEO Jeff Bezos's ownership of The Washington Post.
"Believe me, if I become president, oh do they have problems," Trump said at a rally in February. "They're going to have such problems."
Much of his anger was directed at the Post, which assigned at least 20 reporters to investigate his life during the campaign and published particularly damaging stories about his philanthropy, or lack thereof.
But what kind of problems could a Trump presidency actually inflict on Amazon, the site that's the default marketplace for his branded men's dresswear.
Nothing in the president-elect's proposed tax policy would hurt Amazon. In fact, quite the opposite is true.
The business tax rate would be reduced to 15 percent from 35 percent today, which would likely bolster Amazon's net income now that the company actually makes money. As for sales tax, Amazon collects it on items shipped to the 29 states and the District of Columbia where it's required.
Meanwhile, any connection that Trump tries to make between Amazon's business and the Post's influence ranges from conjecture to nonsense, like when the president-elect suggested that Bezos uses the newspaper's losses as a way to lower taxes paid by Amazon. 
Bezos bought the newspaper in 2013, more than 16 years after Amazon's IPO. The e-retailer has operated at either a loss or at near breakeven from the beginning.

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