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NY state tax break is $48k per Amazon HQ job

fox5ny.com

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Re: NY state tax break is $48k per Amazon HQ job

#11
post #4
post #3

It's unclear to me from the article is this a one time cost? Is it yearly? Monthly? edit: On reading a bit closer it's over $48,000 per job over 10 years.

One time cost paid over 10 years, IIRC

That doesn't sound too terrible then. Even if the average job there paid $48,000, we're talking about 10% of the salary as a tax reduction. And the employees themselves will be paying money into the local economy, paying sales tax, and so on. It may not be a fantastic deal, but it doesn't sound like a net negative for NYC.

Re: NY state tax break is $48k per Amazon HQ job

#12
[disclosure - I work at Amazon, but have no internal information whatsoever.]

This is over 10 years, so ~$5k/job/yr. For reference, economic development incentives for corporate relocations are commonly $20k-75k per job, and often for jobs paying much less than Amazon is expected to pay HQ2.5 employees. Also, I believe that Amazon will receive tax rebates based on the number of jobs created over time, which is better than many packages that don't have any accountability, limits, or clawbacks.

I don't think economic development incentives are a wise use of funds, but this one is notably only for the scale and publicity. People are so mad because this the first time most people have heard of the practice.

For more information (and many much worse examples), see the book "The Great American Jobs Scam" - https://www.amazon.com/Great-American-Jobs-Scam-Corporate/dp...

Re: NY state tax break is $48k per Amazon HQ job

#15
post #5

Perhaps the citizens should object, I hear one of their congress critters is shitposting on twitter to that end. If the locals don't want their lives upended by gentrification, Berlin has shown a good example of how to block uninvited expansion by tech giants: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45971538

> Perhaps the citizens should object

Perhaps they like the idea?

Re: NY state tax break is $48k per Amazon HQ job

#16
In 96', when Apatosaurus still roamed the earth and "Atari" was a thing, Israel granted Intel 600MM$ to build FAB18 in the desert. Over a decade later, an official government report concluded that the country lost some 400MM$ on the move. Bottom line, big-corps can extort states or cities and bid for ridiculous tax incentives that never pay off. I feel sorry for the residents of NY and the bad deal imposed on them.

Re: NY state tax break is $48k per Amazon HQ job

#17
post #7

This is such a great deal for NYC As the article says, they give up $1.5B over 10 years, but then get "Projected incremental tax revenue of more than $10 billion over 20 years." I dont know where that comes from but the payroll and property taxes paid by 25k employees dwarves the incentives. The most important part is it cements NYC as the main tech center on the East Coast. That is invaluable. EDIT: I wonder if NYC…

That $10 billion likely assumes all new staff. There are going to be many current NYC citizens who simply switch jobs to Amazon. Therefore they won't contribute any incremental tax increase. Only if their previous employer rehires their position will a net new position be created.

Re: NY state tax break is $48k per Amazon HQ job

#18
post #7

This is such a great deal for NYC As the article says, they give up $1.5B over 10 years, but then get "Projected incremental tax revenue of more than $10 billion over 20 years." I dont know where that comes from but the payroll and property taxes paid by 25k employees dwarves the incentives. The most important part is it cements NYC as the main tech center on the East Coast. That is invaluable. EDIT: I wonder if NYC…

But wouldn’t many of those people have lived there and paid taxes anyway?

Re: NY state tax break is $48k per Amazon HQ job

#20
It is over 10 years per job. That will ideally by tax by an amazon employee over 5 years. Doesn't reflect the passive economic growth and indirect jobs that gets created over the time.

Also, Amazon and the new Google's expansion will invoke chain reaction in terms of tech activity and new start-up's.

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