Amazon Exec moved from Washington to Texas before capital gains tax – Dailyfly.com Lewis-Clark Valley Community

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(The Center Square) – Dave Clark, the global CEO of Amazon, moved from the Seattle area to Dallas last fall, according to multiple news outlets.

The move came months before a new capital gains tax took effect in Washington state. The new law, which is fought in court, began on January 1. If maintained, the measure would levy a 7% capital gains tax on income over $250,000 a year from the sale of stocks and bonds.

Clark and his wife sold their 8,500 square foot home in Medina, a Seattle suburb, for $14.5 million last September, according to Business Intern. This is more than double the amount they paid four years ago.

Clark has about $42 million worth of Amazon stock.

Joan Eleazer, a Dallas real estate agent, told Business Insider that Clark and his wife looked at several expensive homes she listed before buying one in the Highland Park neighborhood of Dallas. Realtor.com reports that the median home price in Highland Park is $2.3 million. This is not the first such action by a wealthy ruler.

Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos sold nearly $8.6 billion of the company’s stock last year in multiple deals. He also owns a 30,000-acre home and ranch in Van Horn, Texas, southeast of El Paso, near his space company Blue Origin.

In 2020, Tesla Founder and CEO Elon Musk moved from California to Texas, which reportedly saved him billions of dollars in California capital gains tax.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft sold just over half his stock in the company, worth nearly $285 million, late last November, a month before Washington’s capital gains tax kicked in. He still owns some 830,000 shares worth about $280 million.

A Microsoft spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal at the time that Nadella made the sale “for reasons of personal financial planning and diversification.”

A decision on the Washington tax lawsuit is expected late next week, according to Douglas County Superior Court Judge Brian Huber.

Opponents say the tax is unconstitutional because it does not tax income at a flat, uniform rate, and is essentially a progressive income tax since it charges a group of people high income while exempting others.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, arguing in defense of the law, says it is an excise tax. Regardless of Huber’s decision, the lawsuit is expected to be appealed to the Washington State Supreme Court.

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