Why Jeff
Bezos and Elon Musk Paid Little to No Taxes In Years
Never-before-seen
IRS tax records show that 25 wealthiest Americans pay no tax.
Updated: May
31, 2025 06:37 AM EST
Photo of the
Author Fabienne Lang
Fabienne
Lang
You might
have paid more income tax than billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Even as
their wealth grew, they kept paying little to no tax, according to a
one-of-a-kind report by ProPublica.
The
extensive report came to light thanks to ProPublica’s investigative sleuths who
got their hands on “a vast cache of IRS information” that goes over more than
15 years of tax returns of some of the U.S.’, and the world’s, richest people.
No details of who provided the information was shared.
Billionaires
from Amazon’s Bezos to Tesla and SpaceX’s Musk, among others, have seemingly
managed to avoid paying much income tax legally. The difference between how
much the billionaires are worth and what they paid in income tax are
staggering.
For
instance, ProPublica reported that in 2007 and 2011, Bezos paid no income tax,
while Musk achieved the same feat in 2018. The two men have been ping-ponging
back and forth for the title for the world’s richest person, yet they’ve paid
little to no tax over the past years.
More widely,
between 2014 to 2018 the 25 richest Americans combined paid a total of $13.6
billion in federal income tax, the report stated, all while their collective
wealth rose by approximately $401 billion.
It’s hard to
wrap your head around these figures, and understand how the world’s wealthiest
people get away with such low payments — for them.
How does the
world’s richest avoid paying higher income tax?
It all comes
down to income. Most of the billionaires on the list “offset every penny [they]
earned with losses from side investments and various deductions, like interest
expenses on debts and the vague catchall category of ‘other expenses,” read the
report.
The Bezos’
and the Musk’s of this world don’t need high salary wages, because they have so
much money growing in their stocks, property, and more. As the report points
out, take Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Apple’s late Steve Jobs — they chose
to only get paid a $1 salary. Other CEOs and founders have followed suit. Some
may point out to good intentions, while others might believe it’s all to do
with income tax avoidance.
Their wealth
comes from the “skyrocketing value of their assets,” per ProPublica, which are
not considered by U.S. laws as taxable income unless the billionaires decide to
sell.
It’s been
broadly understood for a while now that the rich aren’t taxed as much as the
not-so-rich, and that’s because the median person lives paycheck to paycheck,
and gets taxed on that income.
ProPublica’s
next steps will be to dig up exactly how the U.S.’ wealthiest people managed —
and continue to manage — to avoid paying federal income taxes legally.
Leaking such
high-value data and private records hasn’t gone unnoticed, and according to the
Financial Times, the U.S. tax authorities are investigating who shared these
private tax records with ProPublica, and how. Stay tuned.
Fabienne
Lang <p>Fabienne is a Berlin-based lifestyle, tech, and travel freelance
writer and editor. As a fanatic of travel and experiences, 68 countries and
counting, Fabienne leads an active and diverse lifestyle sharing her insights
and tips along the way. Her words have appeared in international and national
print and online publications: Exberliner, Culture Trip, Echelon, Giddy,
Interesting Engineering, and more. You’ll most likely find Fabienne
voraciously reading, writing or on an active trip in far-fetched
lands.</p>
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