Jeff Bezos's Move From WA To FL Has Saved Him Close To $1B in Taxes This Year (geekwire.com) 332
As Amazon's stock hits a record high (rising 32% just this year), long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes:
GeekWire reports that Jeff Bezos keeps selling Amazon stock after announcing his move away from Washington state — and its 7% tax on capital gains of more than $262,000 from the sale of stocks and bonds — to Florida, which does not have a capital gains tax (like WA, FL also does not tax personal income).
Taylor Soper writes, "Bezos saved more than $600 million by moving to Miami and avoiding Washington's capital gains tax, CNBC reported in February, based on his sale of 50 million shares [$8.5 billion] earlier this year. With the sale of 25 million additional shares [$5 billion], revealed this week in a regulatory filing, Bezos will likely have saved close to $1 billion in total so far. It's a giant chunk of change that would have otherwise gone to the state of Washington."
Taylor Soper writes, "Bezos saved more than $600 million by moving to Miami and avoiding Washington's capital gains tax, CNBC reported in February, based on his sale of 50 million shares [$8.5 billion] earlier this year. With the sale of 25 million additional shares [$5 billion], revealed this week in a regulatory filing, Bezos will likely have saved close to $1 billion in total so far. It's a giant chunk of change that would have otherwise gone to the state of Washington."
Only 7% ? (Score:2)
I wish that was my tax rate as a commoner.
Re:Only 7% ? (Score:4, Informative)
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At the state level, sales tax is Florida's biggest revenue source, with other revenue from taxes on corporate income, real estate transactions, insurance and so forth. Within sales taxes, revenue from vehicle sales and tourism are each about half of the revenue from others general sales. Local jurisdictions within Florida rely much more on taxes on real property.
Re:Only 7% ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Which is pretty awesome from a taxpayer point of view. You are a high tourism state. People are going to come visit regardless of what sales tax costs. If a large portion of your budget can be covered by the tourists, that means it doesn't need to be covered by the residents. A win win for both the state and the resident taxpayers. Tourist are on vacation and vacation is always expensive. Money spends faster on vacation for many.
Meanwhile over here in California, my state is taxing us in every way it can come up with and then turns around and burns it on with no accountability for where all the money is going and where are the results!
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Re:Only 7% ? (Score:5, Funny)
I wish that was my tax rate as a commoner.
Like Florida, Washington doesn't have a state individual income tax and added the 7% tax on individual capital gains in 2021. My state of Virginia has a (max) individual income tax of 5.75% which *also* includes capital gains.
Also, keep in mind that while Bezos saved some tax money by moving to Florida, the down side is that he's now living in Florida. :-)
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I think he can afford to travel.
But it's still Miami (Score:5, Interesting)
All the money in the world can't save you from that horrendous traffic on I-95. I'm assuming his move was mostly on paper and he doesn't actually plan to spend much time residing in that miserably hot, humid, and overcrowded Florida city.
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You obviously haven't lived in Seattle. I've lived in both, and the commute into Seattle is far worse.
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You obviously haven't lived in Seattle. I've lived in both, and the commute into Seattle is far worse.
I've been to Miami fairly recently and the traffic does not fucking move. The only way Seattle could be worse is if the roadways were under a time dilation field that makes the time spent not moving pass even more slowly.
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The only way Seattle could be worse is if the roadways were under a time dilation field that makes the time spent not moving pass even more slowly.
You've obviously never been in Seattle. Sometimes traffic on the freeway is so bad, it seems to go backwards!
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I'm pretty sure Bezos doesn't commute, and if he has to go somewhere he can either take a helicopter or have someone else drive him while he works in the car.
Commuting is for mugs like us who pay taxes. Or at least it was until WFH became a big thing.
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He owns his own helicopter, a $10 million Airbus H145
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Don't worry. Before too long, you'll be able to travel directly between any two points in Miami by boat.
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Miami's elevation is about 7 feet above current sea level. Worst case predictions put that amount of rise at around 75 years from now. Most likely estimate isn't too far behind that.
Re: But it's still Miami (Score:2)
The worst case scenario is roughly half of that. Besides, even if it reaches exactly sea level, that doesn't mean you'd be able to take a boat, you'd need to go well above that. Like I said, centuries.
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A lame fake troll. Every real troll knows that you always concatenate it to "algore".
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All the money in the world will buy your own helicopter, which you can use to fly over I-95 and laugh at all the traffic on I-95.
One helipad fixes all that. (Score:2)
All the money in the world can't save you from that horrendous traffic on I-95. I'm assuming his move was mostly on paper and he doesn't actually plan to spend much time residing in that miserably hot, humid, and overcrowded Florida city.
One helipad fixes all that.
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All the money in the world can't save you from that horrendous traffic on I-95.
Sure it can. The rich could afford to not be stuck in traffic during peak hour before work from home made it cool. That's before you consider that only poor people drive cars, rich people have helicopters.
Good For Him (Score:3, Insightful)
Hey Jeff, your company's "fuck the author" approach to publishing has easily cost your shareholders a billion dollars so far this year.
Then you set a billion more on fire with that retarded TV series impersonating JRR Tolkien.
Maybe that explains why you're selling.
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How are most authors getting fucked by Amazon?
Amazon is wildly profitable, shareholders are happy.
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Why are you conflating authors with shareholders?
Re: Good For Him (Score:2)
OP specifically mentioned shareholders
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You're right; my eye caught on the "fuck the authors" phrase and missed that he said it was the shareholders (not authors) who are losing money.
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I'm really not sure "not actively promoting people who might make slightly more profit for this apocalyptically profitable megacorp that happens to have started out as an online bookstore" is "fucking the authors". It's certainly not actively *helping* you but "doing nothing to help you" is a long way from "fucking you over".
I'm not saying Amazon's innocent here, I'm quite sure there are *many* things they are doing that actively siphon money away from authors and publishers and towards Bezos' pockets. But
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>"P.S. I guarantee if you've ever bought anything on Amazon you get regular ads emailed to you."
Not sure what you are talking about. I never get Email ads from Amazon, and I have shopped there forever. I do get "recommendations" on the website when I am logged in and looking around, some helpful, some not so much.
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If you have something people want to read, submit to a real world publishing house.
Why? Why would I give 95% of my income to a publishing house?
Doing the low effort thing of submission only to Amazon 11 years ago means you have extremely low motivation about professional matters
TIL lazy people write 60 books.
Submit manuscript to actual publisher!
I have thousands of readers all over the world. Why the hell would I "submit" my manuscripts to a publisher? Most publishers would know a good book if one jumped up their ass.
Join or die (Score:5, Insightful)
Right about now I've probably triggered a bunch of people who for reasons that I find unfathomable think that they're interests align with Jeff bezos'.
The thing you got to understand about guys like him there is no amount of money that is ever enough and he's already eyeing your bank account. Maybe you will die before he gets it and maybe you won't
Re: Join or die (Score:3, Insightful)
So you're pissed off because Jeff Bezos moved to Florida?
This is the solution, not the problem (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the problem with having a bunch of little fiefdoms. Billionaires are global entities and even a state government can't compete with that kind of power and money.
You are obviously wrong on the second point; after all Florida was able to compete and win him away. A person as rich as Bezos could easily simply move to a whole different country but instead chose Florida.
But the framing of this as a "problem" is a problem in itself. This is the AWESOME aspect of living in America, in that you get to have 50 states vie to attract as many people as they can.
It doens't have to be financial as in this instance, it can be quality of life, or greta public transport, or all sorts of things. And in the end all of these states competing give people a lot of choice in how they want to live, all while never having to go through the hassle of changing countries and citizenship.
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Right about now I've probably triggered a bunch of people who for reasons that I find unfathomable think that they're interests align with Jeff bezos'.
Yes, nobody could just legitimately disagree with you ... they must be "triggered". (eye roll)
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Come on, be honest, you're just a tad miffed that Bezos has not yet shown up to your crib, bent the knee and told you that he realizes that despite his success, you're the superior human being for being so social and just handed over a few billions just out of sheer respect for you.
Thank goodness he gets a break (Score:2)
I've been really worried about Jeff... he's had a hard time recently.
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What a cheap POS. (Score:3, Insightful)
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But other people have a little thing called a country, and they're willing to contribute a lot more to it than money. If you're not, you can see your bitch ass out of here and move to Dubai or wherever Bezos et al relocates to next in his quest to be free of his betters.
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In Jeff Bezos's world.
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If Florida wanted anyone to care about its "needs," they would
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One of many: Blue-State Wealth Exodus Continues (Score:3, Insightful)
https://taxprof.typepad.com/ta... [typepad.com]
Compared to Washington, Florida has no capital gains tax, no income tax and a lower sales tax. This is a no brainer.
Re:One of many: Blue-State Wealth Exodus Continues (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course billionaires are going to leave blue states for red ones. When you have billions of dollars, even shitty red states can be nice places to live. Lots of money shields you from all the messed-up politics and dysfunctional societies.
Think of the senior citizens (Score:2)
Compared to Washington, Florida has no capital gains tax, no income tax and a lower sales tax. This is a no brainer.
For hundreds of thousands of senior citizens living on fixed income. And they finally don't feel cold.
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At that point why doesn't he renounce citizenship and move to Monaco? They don't collect personal income or capital gains tax. You just have to pay a large cash buy in.
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This one is. Bezos, who officially lives in Florida, sold his shares "in Florida." I guess you could record the transaction as happening wherever the purchaser lived, but that would be kind of weird and very complicated.
I suppose you could also record the transaction wherever the property (chunks of Amazon) is located, which is Delaware.
He has moved from Amazon to Blue Origin (Score:2)
Commute (Score:2)
Hell of a commute if he doesn't move.
Couldn't he just ride one of his rockets?
That's great (Score:2)
I'd hate for us little people to get a free ride on the backs of our betters. Government funding and social welfare should be paid by those who can afford it the least, because they are the only ones who would use it. It's all very libertarian.
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Line Item? (Score:2)
Did Washington have a 'Bezos' line item in its budget forecast?
A billion here, a billion there - you can actually buy a load of groceries.
Funny how we say... (Score:3, Insightful)
I find it funny how we say, "Jeff Bezos's move saved him one billion in taxes." How come nobody is saying, "Jeff Bezos deprived the state of Washington of one billion in taxes?"
Fuck our corporate overlords.
fool (Score:5, Funny)
Um ... okay? (Score:3)
You do know it's perfectly legal to decide what state you want to reside in, right?
And one of the factors that people use to decide is how rapacious the state government is, with their taxes.
Some of you really don't like freedom, do you? Or democracy (you do know that democracy is how each state sets it's taxes, right?).
They're Americans (Score:2)
The colonies revolted against the King under the banner: 'No taxation without representation'. However when a resident non-citizen claimed that this meant he shouldn't be taxed, SCOTUS disagreed. Funny that...
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This is about state taxes, and Florida already rakes it in by sticking it to tourists. Now make no mistake about it, if Florida didn't have a massive tourism economy backing it up, it would be just another typical red state trying to get by on a shoestring budget.
Of course, that hasn't stopped our current moronic governor from biting the hand that feeds by accusing one of the largest tourist attractions in the state of being too "woke".
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This never ceases to amuze me. "Corporations are bad, and politicians should curtail their exceptional powers"... ...except when they push our political dogma. At that point, corporations become good and politicians who seek to curtail their exceptional powers become bad.
I really want the old left back that had proper principles. Modern left knows only one principle. Power. It honors nothing else.
Re:On the other side of the spectrum (Score:4, Insightful)
You... don't pay much attention to politics, do you.
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I really want the old left back that had proper principles. Modern left knows only one principle. Power. It honors nothing else.
Leftists were just laughing at a member of the party of small government and fiscal responsibility wasting tax dollars on a company who has spent nearly a century defending intellectual property.
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Left versus right is just divide and conquer while all our political parties are owned and controlled by upper class influences based on lavish campaign contributions and professional political lobbying.
denial and partisanship are both rampant
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Kinda like saying, if the world didn't have any water on it, humans wouldn't be here.
While true, it's a completely ridiculous statement because the world DOES have water on it, just like Florida DOES have a tourism industry.
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No, this is about ethics. we can all clearly see that these upper class people have none. There is nothing they won't say or do for money.
The lust for wealth and power is the root of all evil.
Re: On the other side of the spectrum (Score:2)
So, since you are of the opinion that merely paying 100% of the taxes owed to a state or federal government is unethical, I'm curious how much extra money you pay for local, state, and federal taxes? Surely an ethical person like yourself sees the value of giving the government even more than they ask for, right? I mean, think of all the playgrounds, school lunches, and low income houses your 'extra' tax payments could fund!
It is perfectly moral and ethical to follow the tax code and pay 109% of what you ow
Re: On the other side of the spectrum (Score:2, Insightful)
Not disagreeing with most of that but..
If youâ(TM)re one of the retards that think it should, then youâ(TM)re quite the fucking fascist arenâ(TM)t you?
Actually fascists are highly collectivist, placing a big emphasis on community over self. Think 1984 where when Winston is being tortured he's compared to a nail clipping. Disney would be just another nail clipping subservient to die fuhrer. Same deal with socialism, except no fuhrer and everybody is destitute.
Re: On the other side of the spectrum (Score:5, Interesting)
Fascists may *sometimes* sound like collectivists sometimes, and individualists other times, but really the only thing that is constant in fascism is devotion to the leader.
Fascists are first and foremosts romantics, and that is the ring through their noses the leader drags them by. They romanticize a non-historical glorious past. They romanticize dying for the Fuhrer. Think of any woman you have known in an abusive relationship; the Fuhrer is the abusive boyfriend who exploits the followers romantic feelings to exact pointless sacrifices and proofs of devotion.
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This is very interesting. Thanks
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"times, but really the only thing that is constant in fascism is devotion to the leader."
Ironic you say that when so many are rallying around Joe Biden.
Given the Socialist record of the Holodomor, the Great Purge, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and of course the legendary Pol Pot, I'm not that enthusiastic about the other side of the continuum either.
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As most dictatorships (fascist or otherwise) tend towards the glorification of the leader of the party, such as the Kim's of North Korea, Franco of Spain, Chairman's Mao and Xi of China and Stalin, Putin of the USSR, Russia. Systems that are collectivist in nature tend to make transitions to those types of governing systems. The reality is that far more human lives have been snuffed out by these collectivist regimes in the last century than any other type of governmental structure.
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but they keep charging a premium for the same old shit broken down attractions. When they do make something new, they stick it into a park that nobody wants to go to so you have to pay an extra $80 to have access to it.
In terms of Disney, demand is outpacing supply. Disney keeps raising prices because the demand is so great. You can't get more capitalist than that.
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I call it "fixing shit", for the record.
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No private company should have its own sovereignty
No they shouldn't but it's worthwhile pointing out how Florida gave them that power when it helped them and now Florida wants to take it away because it no longer helps them. So the lack of consistency is interesting to say the least.
Now if you dive into the "why" Florida sees them as no longer helping, well that becomes a first amendment issue. Like Florida could have literally played it cool and was like "nah our roads are congested, we're taking power away". But no, they literally had to mention that
Technically, at least two people above the law (Score:4, Informative)
Well there's clearly only one person above the law according to the Supreme Court.
I'm pretty sure you meant Trump.
But what stops Biden at the next debate declaring his next action is an official one to defend the country and Constitution, as Commander in Chief... and then shooting Trump?
The House would vote to impeach. The Senate would fail to get a 2/3 majority to convict. And he's off the hook, right?
Re:Technically, at least two people above the law (Score:5, Interesting)
But what stops Biden at the next debate declaring his next action is an official one
Nothing. But at the same time, Biden hasn't indicated he'll be a dictator for a day. [apnews.com] Indicate that he'd lock up political opponents. [theguardian.com] Or indicate that he'd start a military tribunal for people who aren't politically sided with him. [nytimes.com]
So yeah. If Biden says any of that stuff or Biden's lawyers literally indicate that assassination of opponents is covered under the new broad powers [thehill.com] then yeah it would be a slightly different conversation now wouldn't it?
The biggest difference between the two is that with one, we're just playing hypothetical, with the other, they've literally said in one way or another that they are warm to the idea of what you've pitched here.
And he's off the hook, right?
Yeap, apparently with the SCOTUS ruling as it stands. Such a hypothetical would let him off the hook. I'm glad you and I both agree that the recent SCOTUS ruling is a pile of shit. There is zero logic behind the idea that the Constitution was written or conveys the notion SCOTUS just handed down. It's a bad ruling. But even worse for a particular Presidential candidate to be openly talking about methods to employ this new power, while the other one is likely too senile to even remotely consider the possibility. I'll take the "Oops, Alzheimer made me forget I could assassinate people" candidate over "I can't wait to assassinate people" candidate.
Re: Technically, at least two people above the law (Score:2)
Like a dictator for one day [apnews.com], not "a dictator on day one"
Why does the left find it so hard to properly quote their opponents?
Re: Technically, at least two people above the law (Score:4, Interesting)
those are all leftist creations based on the flimsiest of interpretations of what Trump said
Because Trump hands it to them. Fucking hell, we used to hold people who could be eloquent in their manner of speech upon high. Trump is word salad and worse, he's inept at actual governance.
Maybe we should start taking everything that dribbles out of Joe Biden's mouth 100% literal, and when the mood strikes us, mischaracterize it and claim it's what he said
GOP lost their goddamn mind over a tan suit. I mean, shit, there isn't a "start" being hyperbolic of everything has been politics as of late. GOP is crazy ass end of the spectrum shit and Democrats have been everything is a crime. Neither group is doing great in the dole it out or the holding back on elevating every little thing done to a genocide of something. I'm still waiting on my migrant convoy that's going to overthrow society. I'm still waiting on my 1000 years of darkness [youtu.be].
And so on... what do you say?
Hell, worse has been said for less. Fucking go for it if you want. Either way none of it makes the situation any better. But when fucking people are like "it's settle law" and then overturn it. "He's learned his lesson" and then attempts to have a coup. I mean, shit, there's a ton of actionable things that have happened that folks in the GOP were like "oh that would never happen" and then they happen. Sort of how McConnell was all assuring us that Trump would accept the election results and then proceeds to not accept the results from the 2020 election, still doesn't accept them even in 2024. There's only so many times we buy the bullshit.
What's that saying fool me once... Shame on you. Fool me twice... You can't get fooled again?
Trump is a powder keg. So yeah, alone, he won't explode. But holy fuck are there a ton of people he surrounds himself with that have a match.
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They should't, but they were unfortunately better at all of it than any part of Florida itself ever has.
Re:On the other side of the spectrum (Score:5, Informative)
The Reedy Creek Improvement District was chartered under Florida legislation, as part of a business deal between Florida and Disney to bring Disney into the state. So the existence of the district wasn't a violation of Florida's sovereignty, it's creation was an *exercise* of state sovereignty.
I used to work with local government around the country, and special taxation districts are especially common in Florida -- there's hundreds and hundreds of them. They do things that the state would otherwise have to do, but which the state doesn't want to be directly involved with, like mosquito control. Florida has well over a hundred districts like Reedy Creek whose job it is to promote develop in previously undeveloped land and then manage that development.
Florida, because it is sovereign, can dissolve any of these districts. The problem with dissolving such a district is that the state or counties have to assume the responsibilities of the former district, including paying off bondholders, *without any increase in tax revenues*.
Sovereignty amounts to one thing: the right to make certain choices. It doesn't guarantee you're going to like making that choices -- e.g., dissolve the district but have to raise taxes as a result.
Re: On the other side of the spectrum (Score:2)
It's an old Germanic fable and the title makes a specific reference to the titular character's skin color. Purely objectively speaking, it makes no sense to say that somebody shouldn't be "concerned", though not for race baiting reasons like you imply, rather for being faithful to the original story. Indeed, that was exactly what the brothers Grimm were trying to do when they published that -- they were trying to faithfully preserve folklore as it existed at the time.
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Bet you and the other woke assists wouldn't be saying that if someone suggested rewriting jim in tom Sawyer as white. It's all a one way street isnt it? White characters can be black but anyone stupid enough to suggest the opposite...
Hmm, that's a really interesting thought experiment. Would a white slave boy provoke white or black extremists more?
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This is adjacent to the above idea, but Mark Twain wrote a book called Puddin'head Wilson. A black baby who is only 1/32 black and a white baby were swapped at birth. The black baby grew up white and had all the financial help that afforded him. The white baby grew up black and impoverished. Their lives disintegrated to various degrees (I'm skipping the major themes of the story which is quite good):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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I did. To be fair do you even have black friends?? I heard plenty of people bitching. At least Miles Moralis was explained away with alternate universe theory. Nobody deleted the original peter parker. They simply made another spiderman, in another universe. Like the Kelvin Timeline star trek. Actually a lot of new spidermen. . Film Nior spiderman, Gwen as spiderman, etc.
What disney did with little mermaid, It makes no sense. There is no sunlight in the deep ocean. Where the hell would sun reactive pigment
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Ocean-native fish come in a wide variety of colors- there's blue marlins and red spottail bass and green catfish and orange clownfish. They come in solid colors, striped, spotted, and whatever you call the pattern on the mandarin drago
Or just went earlier (Score:2)
Mark Cuban resides in Texas - another state that does not have an income tax leaving him to not pay his fair share of California or Washington state taxes. All of these states hoping to sock it to the rich are having their rich sock it right back - instead of paying the even higher tax rate, cheaper to just move to a mor tax friendly state
Oh, and don't forget sports teams - players are now willing to play for a lower salary in a tax-free state because they take home the same amount of money. They hire acc
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I assume Mark Cuban pays tax in Texas, which also has not capital gains or income tax.
Re: On the other side of the spectrum (Score:2)
Mark Cuban isn't subject to the 7% capital gains tax Bezos avoided, so he didn't pay it either.
You realize that Mark Cuban, like Jeff Bezos, lives in a no-income tax state, right?
And, if we're being honest, Jeff Bezos can make the exact same statement - Bezos pays 100% of all taxes owed, he simply chooses to live in a place that doesn't collect 7% taxes on all capital gains over $262K.
Thought question, if Texas implemented a similar 7% capital gains tax on all income over $262,000, would he stay in Texas?
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"News for nerds, stuff that matters."
Re:Different headline: (Score:4, Informative)
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I'll bite.
What the eff are you talking about? Like, are you suggesting that Florida has FEWER addicts? You might want to look at actual... you know.. statistics.
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Thank goodness Florida has managed to eliminate homeless people and drug addicts.
Re: Seattle's bums/addicts don't care (Score:2)
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Re: Seattle's bums/addicts don't care (Score:2)
Why would they do that when they can just send them to Seattle? They can more easily self-medicate there and the weather is more suitable for living outdoors.
Re: Seattle's bums/addicts don't care (Score:2)
Fire Department has Naloxone to revive the near-dead
I'm not sure it's working. Have you seen these guys? Some of them look like they just got off the set of the walking dead.
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I'm sorry you have such a low opinion of almost all Americans who ever lived. But maybe there's a better way than parroting the propaganda of shameless, bloodsucking slavers who have always and will always blame their own victims for the wrongs they do.
Amazon only had a viable business plan because they leeched off the USPS until it became convenient to start sabotaging and usurping it. Bezos, like most billionaires, was and is a simple parasite.