Article from Reason by Christian Britschgi.
On May 14, City Council is scheduled to vote on an “employee head tax,” which would impose a 26 cent levy on every hour worked by an employee at companies making more than $20 million a year. The tax would hit between 500 and 600 businesses; it is supposed to raise about $75 million a year for homelessness and affordable housing services.
Versions of this proposal have been circulating for a while. They’ve been nicknamed the “Amazon tax”—of that $75 million in revenue, $20 million is expected come from the online retailer.
Amazon isn’t taking the tax lying down. On Tuesday the company announced that it is pausing construction planning for a 17-story building intended to serve as office space for some 7,000 Amazon employees. Amazon is being uncharacteristically explicit about the reasons for the stall.
“I can confirm that pending the outcome of the head-tax vote by City Council, Amazon has paused all construction planning on our Block 18 project in downtown Seattle and is evaluating options to sublease all space in our recently leased Rainier Square building,” company spokesperson Drew Herdener said in a statement.
Read the entire article at Reason.
On May 14, City Council is scheduled to vote on an “employee head tax,” which would impose a 26 cent levy on every hour worked by an employee at companies making more than $20 million a year. The tax would hit between 500 and 600 businesses; it is supposed to raise about $75 million a year for homelessness and affordable housing services.
Versions of this proposal have been circulating for a while. They’ve been nicknamed the “Amazon tax”—of that $75 million in revenue, $20 million is expected come from the online retailer.
Amazon isn’t taking the tax lying down. On Tuesday the company announced that it is pausing construction planning for a 17-story building intended to serve as office space for some 7,000 Amazon employees. Amazon is being uncharacteristically explicit about the reasons for the stall.
“I can confirm that pending the outcome of the head-tax vote by City Council, Amazon has paused all construction planning on our Block 18 project in downtown Seattle and is evaluating options to sublease all space in our recently leased Rainier Square building,” company spokesperson Drew Herdener said in a statement.
Read the entire article at Reason.
