Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts took her war for higher corporate taxes to Twitter Friday in a duel with giant retailer Amazon, and wound up complaining about “snotty tweets” from Big Tech.
Warren began the battle by uploading a video of an exchange from a Thursday hearing by the Senate Finance Committee in which Kimberly Clausing, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis at the Department of the Treasury discussed the retailer’s taxes.
Clausing said that the “Corporate tax rate was 21 percent at the regular rate,” according to a transcript of the hearing posted on Warren’s website.
Warren then asked about Amazon’s profits and taxes over the past three years.
Giant corporations like Amazon report huge profits to their shareholders – but they exploit loopholes and tax havens to pay close to nothing in taxes. That’s just not right – and it’s why I’ll be introducing a bill to make the most profitable companies pay a fair share. pic.twitter.com/vPrmGbjUKW
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 25, 2021
“So there was a recent high tech study that looked at this, and Amazon earned over $40 billion dollars over that three year period, and paid about 4.5 % tax rate,” Clausing said.
Clausing later used the word “loopholes” to describe how Amazon was able to lower its taxes.
In her tweet accompanying the video, Warren wrote, “Giant corporations like Amazon report huge profits to their shareholders — but they exploit loopholes and tax havens to pay close to nothing in taxes.”
“That’s just not right — and it’s why I’ll be introducing a bill to make the most profitable companies pay a fair share,” she added.
Amazon fired back in a three-tweet message.
“You make the tax laws@SenWarren; we just follow them. If you don’t like the laws you’ve created, by all means, change them. Here are the facts: Amazon has paid billions of dollars in corporate taxes over the past few years alone. In 2020, we had another $1.7B in federal tax expense and that’s on top of the $18 billion we generated in sales taxes for states and localities in the U.S. Congress designed tax laws to encourage investment in the economy. So what have we done about that? $350B in investments since 2010 & 400K new US jobs last year alone. And while you’re working on changing the tax code, can we please raise the federal minimum wage to $15?” Amazon tweeted.
1/3 You make the tax laws @SenWarren; we just follow them. If you don’t like the laws you’ve created, by all means, change them. Here are the facts: Amazon has paid billions of dollars in corporate taxes over the past few years alone.
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 26, 2021
3/3 So what have we done about that? $350B in investments since 2010 & 400K new US jobs last year alone. And while you’re working on changing the tax code, can we please raise the federal minimum wage to $15?
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 26, 2021
Warren could not let that pass unanswered.
“I didn’t write the loopholes you exploit, @amazon — your armies of lawyers and lobbyists did. But you bet I’ll fight to make you pay your fair share. And fight your union-busting. And fight to break up Big Tech so you’re not powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets,” she wrote.
I didn’t write the loopholes you exploit, @amazon – your armies of lawyers and lobbyists did. But you bet I’ll fight to make you pay your fair share. And fight your union-busting. And fight to break up Big Tech so you’re not powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets. https://t.co/3vCAI93MST
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 26, 2021
Some noted that while Amazon has some issues, Warren’s remark also crossed a line.
On that last line Senator Warren, no. ANYONE in America should be able to heckle senators, or any representative with snotty tweets. Even if they are big jerk corporations.
That’s the beauty of our system.On the rest, go get ’em. Amazon needs to stop abusing their workers.
— ?Life Seeking Truth & Other Wild Things???️⚧ (@LsTowT) March 26, 2021
I hate Amazon’s practices as well, but no public servant is above reproach. You all work for us, and it’s best you not forget that.
— Smoochyface (@thesmoochyface) March 26, 2021
President Joe Biden has indicated that a corporate tax increase is part of his plan to pay for future spending that could include a $3 trillion infrastructure package,
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.