***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*** APRIL 3, 2012 Fed up with Amazon's corporate tax dodging, customers use feedback system to review the company itself.
In a first-of-its-kind online action, the Amazon.com webpage for a pie-cutter is being swamped today with "reviews" pointing out the giant online retailer's failure to pay their fair share of taxes. Frustrated by Amazon's tax-dodging, workers, students, and community members from the Seattle area and others from across the country are sending Amazon a message they can't miss — by leaving the message on Amazon's own website:
* "Quite often when divvying up dinner at our family's weekly "Pizza Night", I as the oldest and richest will take the largest slice. My children starve on the leftover scraps, if there is any left. It's so easy to forget that there are others to feed! Now that I have the handy Pie Marker/Cutter 6 Cut, I recognize that my greed, while initially profitable to my waistline, has resulted in my family leaving me! Hopefully the smell of delicious, fairly sized slices of pizza will convince them to return to the family. Thanks for the valuable lesson, Amazon!" —DWeiland
* "While I find it nice that Amazon sells this pie cutter that cuts a pie into equal pieces, it is regrettable to me that they are doing everything they can to hoard all the pie and leave the rest of us dividing the crumbs. From treating their workers poorly, avoiding taxes, and strong arming other businesses Amazon uses dirty tricks to hoard the pie and make their CEO super rich. While we are all left with equally splitting the crumbs…." — Onlythecrumbs
Our creative action seems to have struck a nerve in South Lake Union. While well more than 100 people have written and posted fair share pie cutter reviews, Amazon has removed a good number of these — so there's no doubt Amazon executives are well aware of our message that it's time for them to pay their fair share. However, the word about Amazon's tax-dodging shenanigans continues to spread, and reviews continue to be posted even faster than Amazon can wipe them clean. Click here to see all the dozens of reviews still remaining on the site: http://www.amazon.com/Pie-Marker-Cutter-6-Cut/dp/B002UCB686/
The reviews are in: a can't-miss message about tax dodging
With tax day just 2 weeks away and people across the country getting ready to pay what they owe to the IRS, community members are outraged that Amazon and other big corporations are trying to get away with paying almost nothing in taxes.
In fact, according to a recent report by the Citizens for Tax Justice, the company's effective Federal income tax rate last year was only 5.5% — far less than the 35% rate set in law. Amazon drove their tax rate this low by taking advantage of a loophole that gives them the company a $1 tax deduction for every $1 in options they hand out to top executives. Last year alone, this scheme saved Amazon $276 million — and cost the rest of us that much in cuts to public education, public infrastructure, and other public services.
Since Amazon claims to pride itself on innovation and customer feedback, online activists decided to use those very tools to bring a message to Amazon about their tax-dodging in a way they couldn't miss — by giving a negative review to their corporate tax dodging, mistreatment of workers, and predatory practices.
More information:
* Pie cutter product review page:http://www.amazon.com/Pie-Marker-Cutter-6-Cut/dp/B002UCB686/
* "Corporate tax dodgers" report from Citizens for Tax Justice: http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2011/11/corporate_taxpayers_corporate_tax_dodgers_2008-2010.php
* Seattle Times investigation of Amazon's business practices: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2017883596_amazonintro25.html
Working Washington is bringing people together to fight for a fair economy — and that means holding corporations like Amazon.com accountable to pay their fair share and make sure all the jobs they create are good jobs. It's time to stop the cuts to education, health care, and other services so we can build an economy that works for everyone, not just the top 1%. For more information, visit WorkingWa.org
###