Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), is the second richest person in the world. He has a net worth of $193 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Over the past four days, he has turned $4 billion of that fortune into something other than Amazon stock, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.
No one except Bezos and his inner circle knows why he sold the shares now. He reportedly plans to move to Florida. His current residence is in Washington, a state where the capital gains tax is 8%. Florida does not have a capital gains tax. According to other SEC filings, Bezos has a 10b5-1 plan, which means he plans to sell a fixed number of shares on future dates.
Several billionaires, including Carl Icahn and Ken Griffin, have moved to Florida. Almost certainly, they moved due to the state’s favorable tax rates. (These are the richest Americans in history.)
Bezos has sold his shares as Amazon stock has surged recently. The share price is up 69% in the past year. The S&P 500 is 20% higher over the same period. The reason for the increase is, at least in part, Amazon’s financial performance. Last year, revenue rose 12% to $575 billion. Net income for the year was $30 billion, compared to a loss of $2.7 billion in the previous year.
Jeff Bezos no longer runs Amazon. He gave up the chief executive’s job to become the executive chair of the board of directors on July 5, 2021, and was replaced as CEO by Andy Jassy.
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