$2.2 billion in current federal income tax expense.
$6.2 billion in federal taxes that include employer payroll taxes, customs duties, and other taxes and fees.
$4.7 billion in state and local taxes of all types.
Amazon volunteered one item that included the amount of payroll taxes — that is, employer contributions to Social Security and Medicare — it paid in 2022. However, as Snopes reported in 2024, that item also included customs duties or tariffs, which are passed on to consumers like a sales tax, meaning Amazon itself does not pay them. It was unclear what the company meant by “other taxes and fees.” Due to the fact we could not break it down into taxes Amazon paid and taxes it collected on behalf of the government, we included that number in our first calculation, though the final result overestimates what the retail giant actually paid.
In addition, Amazon said it had further helped to collect sales tax, though we did not include it in the income tax calculation as every business must collect and remit sales tax on their goods and services. These taxes are paid by consumers and not by the companies that sell the products.
GM, meanwhile, did not provide such a breakdown for that year, but said it had paid $1.888 billion in income taxes in 2022 in its news release for its full-year results.
IBM did not pay taxes in 2022. Instead, it received a tax refund of $626 million, according to its annual report for that year.
Lastly, Netflix said it had set aside $772,005 for income taxes in 2022 in its annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In total, the four companies combined had paid $15.134 billion in taxes, including Amazon’s “payroll taxes, customs duties and other taxes and fees.”
However, if we limit the comparison to just the income taxes paid by immigrants illegally residing in the U.S. vs. the income taxes paid by the companies, immigrants still paid more: The companies paid a total of $4.234 billion in income tax compared with the $7 billion undocumented immigrants paid for the year 2022, according to ITEP’s study — 65% more.
Based on this data, and comparing it with the conclusion of the study, Snopes found that it is true immigrants living in the U.S. illegally contributed more in taxes than those four companies combined, with the caveat that the annual statements of GM, IBM and Netflix did not include payroll taxes.
