HQ2 Employees Might Unwittingly Pay Their Taxes to Amazon

November 5, 2018

An Amazon worker in Phoenix, Arizona, wheels a dolly with boxes.
Ross D. Franklin/AP

By Greg LeRoy

There’s a very real chance that when Amazon.com, Inc. starts hiring employees for its second headquarters, or HQ2, those employees’ state personal income taxes won’t all go to the state treasury. Billions of dollars in taxes may instead be diverted to the company, of which CEO Jeff Bezos owns 17 percent.