Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wants you to understand just how big Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)'s tax break really is. So she's breaking out the comparisons, and they're pretty wild.
The $7.8 billion in tax relief that Amazon and founder Jeff Bezos received last year under Trump's tax law? That's equivalent to what the median U.S. household—earning about $78,000 annually—would make over 100,000 years. Yes, you read that correctly. One hundred thousand years.
Warren posted her analysis on X Wednesday, and she didn't stop at household income. She pointed out that Amazon's tax break was four times larger than the revenue from Taylor Swift's record-breaking Eras Tour, which brought in $2 billion and became the highest-grossing tour in history. She also compared it to the earnings of Kim Kardashian, basketball star LeBron James, and even the average S&P 500 CEO. The point? Even wildly successful celebrities and executives don't come close to the tax incentives handed to Bezos and other billionaires.
"Amazon and Jeff Bezos are getting the sweetest deal of all, thanks to Donald Trump," Warren said.
Her broader argument is about priorities. Warren contends that Trump redirected taxpayer money that could have lowered healthcare costs and instead delivered it to one of the world's wealthiest individuals. It's part of her ongoing critique of corporate tax breaks and what she sees as a system that favors corporations over people.
The Numbers Behind the Outrage
Warren's criticism gained fuel from Amazon's 10-K filing earlier this month, which revealed something remarkable: the company's tax bill dropped from $9 billion in 2024 to just $1.2 billion in 2025, even as profits climbed higher.
How'd that happen? Amazon pointed to new depreciation breaks and expanded R&D incentives introduced by Republican tax cuts, referring to them as "changes by Congress." The company also noted it invested an estimated $340 billion in the U.S. during 2025.
Still, a nearly $8 billion reduction in taxes while profits grow has sparked serious debate about fairness in the tax code. An Oxfam report previously warned that the Republican tax bill could worsen wealth inequality in America, arguing the legislation disproportionately benefits the wealthy. According to their analysis, a 3% tax on wealth above $1 billion could generate $50 billion from just the 10 richest Americans—enough to fund a full year of food aid for 22.5 million people.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been hammering similar themes. In an X post Wednesday, Sanders accused the billionaire class of targeting working families and criticized advertisements opposing a 5% tax on fortunes above $50 million. His message was blunt: the wealthy need to pay their fair share instead of fighting modest tax increases.
The debate isn't just about Amazon or Bezos specifically. It's about whether the current tax system creates reasonable incentives for investment and growth, or whether it's tilted so heavily toward the ultra-wealthy that it undermines basic fairness. Warren's 100,000-year comparison is designed to make that abstract question feel very, very concrete.
