"Zero is a better number than $1," says Jeff Bezos, at least when it comes to taxes. In a CNBC interview Wednesday, the Amazon founder said the bottom 50% of US taxpayers should have their federal income tax bill cut to zero. That group currently pays 3.3% of all federal income taxes, per the Tax Foundation. Bezos expressed that "I think there's something very powerful about zero."
Yahoo! Finance reports he referenced the struggles his own parents, a Cuban immigrant and a teen mother, experienced: "I want to make sure that the people who are struggling today have a chance to do that, too, to bring themselves up, and maybe they're going to be the next Steve Jobs. Maybe one of their kids will be the next Steve Jobs. I don't know, but we can give them a better chance by eliminating their tax bill."
He also gave the hypothetical of "a nurse in Queens who makes $75,000 a year [and] pays more than $12,000 a year in taxes. Does that really make sense? How about we start by having the nurse in Queens not pay taxes? That's $1,000 a month that could help with rent or groceries or anything. The bottom half of income earners in this country pay only 3% of the taxes. It's only 3%. We can find 3%." What won't make a difference for that teacher? "You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not going to help that teacher in Queens," Bezos said, per NBC News.
The bottom half of taxpayers—defined as those with an annual income below $53,801—paid an average federal income tax rate of 3.7% in 2023, versus 26.3% for the top 1%. Yahoo! notes 76 million US households paid no income tax in 2025.
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