***MEDIA ADVISORY*** FOR APRIL 17, 2012 CONTACT: Sage Wilson, sage@workingwa.org
Tax day protesters demand: "Fair's fair. Pay your share."
On Tax Day, more than a hundred workers, students, people of faith, and community leaders will converge in South Lake Union to "occu-pie" Amazon and call on the company to pay their fair share of taxes. With a pie-eating contest and then a march to the company's headquarters campus, we are going to show the giant retailer what a fair share looks like. (Hint: it's more than the 5.5% effective Federal income tax rate they paid.)
A delegation of faith & community leaders will also attempt to deliver a letter to Amazon executives calling on the company to provide a fair deal to communities and workers.
When: Tax Day — Tuesday, April 17th — at 5 pm. March to "occu-pie" Amazon begins at 5:30.
Where: Rally and pie-eating contest in southwest corner of Denny Park (100 Dexter Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109). Fair share march will head to Amazon office building at 410 Terry Ave N, Seattle, WA, 98109 (between Harrison & Republican)
What: March to "occu-pie" Amazon's corporate campus by more than a hundred protesters wearing chef hats and carrying pie. This will follow a pie-eating contest to show Amazon what a fair share looks like.
Amazon will be "occu-pied" on Tax Day because the giant online retailer is a major corporate tax-dodger. They pay an effective Federal income tax rate of only 5.5% — far less than the 35% corporate tax rate set in law. This is on top of their well-known aggressive efforts to avoid paying sales taxes in jurisdictions across the country.
The people's action to "occu-pie" Amazon is part of a series of Fair Share Tax Day events across the country where people are rallying at corporate headquarters, banks, and post offices across the country to demand that big corporations and the rich stop gaming the system and start paying what they owe — just like the rest of us do. If companies like Amazon — and CEOs like Amazon's Jeff Bezos — would pay their fair share, we'd have the resources we need to stop cutting public services and start creating jobs by investing in the future of our communities.
More Information
* Corporate tax dodgers report from Citizens for Tax Justice:
http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2011/11/corporate_taxpayers_corporate_tax_dodgers_2008-2010.php
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. We're taking creative, direct action to call on elected officials, big corporations, and the top 1% to do what it takes to stop the cuts to education, health care, and other services. It's time to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the top 1%. For more information, visit WorkingWa.org