You're confusing "tax refund" with "tax rebate." Also, Amazon had carryforward losses, so they paid too much in taxes in prior years and therefor didn't have t

You're confusing "tax refund" with "tax rebate." Also, Amazon had carryforward losses, so they paid too much in taxes in prior years and therefor didn't have to pay taxes this year. Not exactly nefarious, carryforward losses are an intentional part of the tax code that prevents companies from paying more in supposed earnings they have on paper that can never be realized as profit because taxes are based on estimates. Every business, not just Amazon, get carryforward losses when they overpay in taxes. Edit: I suppose it's equivalent to say it prevents them from overpaying in taxes in the future. That might be easier to understand if you consider that in any given year, a company pays zero in taxes if they don't make money, regardless of how much money they lose. That timing difference means that the tax burden changes from year to year as investments in a company are realized through buying and selling goods. It's a smoothing out of taxes. Instead of forcing Amazon to structure it's business to always make the same profit each year, they get to smooth it out over a maximum of a 10 year rolling window. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_operating_loss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_operating_loss