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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