Amazon cash taxes remain U.S. centered with limited country detail
Amazon’s 2025 Form 10-K annual filing expands income tax disclosure but stops short of naming countries where cash taxes were paid.
The filing separates cash taxes into U.S. federal, U.S. state, and international categories. It does not disclose cash income taxes paid by individual foreign countries, even after the adoption of the new income tax disclosure standard in 2025.
The result is partial geographic visibility.
The numbers show where taxes sit at a high level, but not where those payments land outside the United States.
Country-level tax picture
Amazon’s cash income tax payments remain anchored in the United States. The company discloses cash taxes paid by jurisdictional bucket, not by country. International taxes are presented only as a single aggregate line.
The overall pattern shows a sharp decline in U.S. federal cash taxes in 2025, alongside higher international cash taxes. State taxes remain relatively stable.
Cash income taxes paid, net of refunds, were as follows in 2025:
U.S. federal: $2.8 billion
U.S. state: $2.1 billion
International: $3.4 billion
No individual foreign countries are named. The filing does not specify which jurisdictions are included in the international total.
Concentration and scale
Cash tax payments are still concentrated in the United States, even after the 2025 shift. Combined U.S. federal and state taxes totaled roughly $4.9 billion in 2025. International cash taxes totaled $3.4 billion.
That means close to 60% of Amazon’s cash income taxes were paid in the United States. The remaining 40% is located outside the U.S., but there is no geographic breakdown.
The lack of country-level detail is problematic because Amazon operates at scale across Europe, Asia, and emerging markets. The disclosure does not allow readers to assess whether international taxes are concentrated in a small number of countries or dispersed across many jurisdictions.
Year-over-year change
Total cash income taxes fell materially in 2025. Amazon paid $8.3 billion in cash taxes in 2025, down from $12.3 billion in 2024.
The composition changed meaningfully. U.S. federal cash taxes dropped from $7.6 billion in 2024 to $2.8 billion in 2025. International cash taxes increased from $2.2 billion to $3.4 billion over the same period. State taxes declined slightly.
The effective tax rate rose to 19.6% in 2025 from 13.5% in 2024, despite lower cash taxes.
What the numbers suggest
The structure points to a tax profile that remains U.S. heavy but is no longer overwhelmingly federal in cash terms. The decline in U.S. federal cash taxes drives the overall reduction, while international payments become more visible relative to it.
Geographic visibility remains limited. Investors, the primary audience of 10-K, can see the U.S. versus non-U.S. split, but not which foreign tax authorities received the cash. Even with expanded disclosure requirements, Amazon does not provide country-level cash tax data.
The increase in the effective tax rate, alongside lower cash taxes, underscores the distinction between tax expense and cash payments. The filing makes clear that these metrics moved in opposite directions in 2025.
The company identifies a non-routine driver for the year-over-year change. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 materially altered U.S. corporate tax rules. The law reinstated full accelerated depreciation and immediate expensing of domestic research and development costs, with retroactive application.
Amazon states that the 2025 Tax Act significantly decreased its cash taxes in 2025 while increasing its income tax provision. The reduction in the foreign income deduction under the new law contributed to the higher effective tax rate. No other non-routine external drivers are identified in the filing.
Closing takeaway
Amazon’s 2025 disclosure shows where cash taxes sit in broad strokes, not by country. Cash taxes fell sharply due to U.S. tax law changes, while international payments rose in share without added transparency. The filing reports the amount paid inside versus outside the U.S., but not where abroad those taxes were actually paid.