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15-02-2024
WASHINGTON: Multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos has sold more of his shares in Amazon, bringing the total value of sales in recent days to more than $4bn (£3.2bn).
The technology giant, which Bezos founded in 1994, said he has sold 24 million Amazon shares this month.
Bezos, who is the firm’s executive chair, last sold Amazon shares in 2021.
Earlier this month, the company said he was planning to sell 50 million shares over the next year, which are worth around $8.4bn at current prices.
The first sale of 12 million shares was announced in a regulatory filing on Friday, followed by an announcement on Tuesday of the sale of another 12 million shares.
Bezos has also given away shares in Amazon as part of his philanthropy, most recently in 2022.
As Bezos moved to Miami in Florida from Seattle in Washington last year, he will save around $280m in tax on the $4bn worth of stock he has sold.
Gains above $250,000 from the sale of shares or other long term investments, are taxed at 7% in Washington State. Florida does not have state taxes on incomes or capital gains.
However, he will still be liable to federal taxes as a result of selling the shares.
When Bezos announced his move to Florida it prompted speculation over whether it was because of a potential tax bill he would have faced in Washington after the state approved a new tax on large stock sales.
His sales of Amazon shares come after they have risen by almost 70% in the past year.
Bezos said in November that his parents had recently moved back to Miami where he spent some of his childhood and that he wanted to be close to them and to his Blue Origin space project, which was “increasingly shifting to Cape Canaveral”.
“Lauren and I love Miami,” he wrote on Instagram, referring to his fiancée Lauren Sanchez.
“For all that, I’m planning to return to Miami, leaving the Pacific Northwest,” he added.
Bezos remains Amazon’s biggest shareholder and is one of the richest people in the world, with an estimated fortune of more than $190bn.
The sale plan was adopted on 8 November last year and Bezos plans to have it completed by 31 January 2025, according to the company’s latest annual report.
The businessman stepped down as Amazon’s chief executive in 2021 to spend more time on his other projects, including the rocket company Blue Origin, and his philanthropy.
In 2022 the billionaire revealed plans to give away most of his $124bn (£110bn) fortune during his lifetime.
Bezos told media that he and his fiancee, the journalist-turned-philanthropist Lauren Sanchez, were “building the capacity to be able to give away this money”.
He said the money would go to causes that work to tackle climate change and to support people who can unify humanity. (Int’l News Desk)
