Jeff Bezos Sells $6 Billion Amazon Stock in 2025 After Moving to Miami: Strategic Tax Move Explained

Jeff Bezos' $6 billion Amazon stock sale aligns with his strategic move back to Miami, optimizing tax benefits.

Essential Highlights

• Jeff Bezos returned to Miami, his high school hometown, three months ago, where his family still resides.
• This relocation helps him avoid Washington State’s 7% capital gains tax introduced three years ago.
• The recent stock sale follows a legally authorized plan designed for corporate insiders to sell shares systematically.

In February 2024, Jeff Bezos sold over 20 million shares of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), the company he founded three decades ago in Seattle.

He executed this sale under a structured insider trading plan, benefiting from his recent move to Florida, which reduces his tax liabilities.

As the founder and former CEO of Amazon and the world’s third-richest person, Bezos liquidated $6 billion worth of shares between February 7 and February 14, 2024, according to SEC filings.

This was his first Amazon stock sale since November 2021. Despite the large sum, it represented only 3.6% of his total Amazon holdings—he still owns over 952 million shares valued at more than $160 billion.

The sale was part of a pre-established plan for stock disposition, with his Florida residency significantly lowering the tax impact.

Utilizing the SEC’s 10b5-1 Trading Plan

On November 8, 2023, Bezos announced a plan to sell up to 50 million Amazon shares by January 31, 2025. At that time, Amazon stock was priced around $142 per share and has since increased to nearly $170.

This plan operates under the SEC’s 10b5-1 rule, which permits corporate insiders to set predetermined stock sale instructions with brokers, preventing accusations of insider trading.

Such plans allow insiders owning at least 10% of a company’s shares to systematically sell stock while complying with regulatory oversight. Bezos owned 10% of Amazon shares when initiating his plan.

Back to Miami: Tax Efficiency and Personal Roots

Just six days before announcing his 10b5-1 plan, Bezos revealed his relocation to Miami, where he attended high school and where his parents still live in Coral Gables.

He acquired two estates valued at approximately $147 million in Indian Creek Village, a prestigious island community near Miami Beach.

Besides reconnecting with his roots, this move enables Bezos to avoid Washington’s 7% capital gains tax, which Florida does not impose, saving him an estimated $430 million in state taxes.

Florida continues to attract wealthy individuals, including investors like Carl Icahn and Josh Harris, who recently purchased the NFL’s Washington Commanders.

Studies from 2019-2020 show that households earning over $200,000 are relocating to Florida at four times the rate of any other state, highlighting the state’s growing appeal for high earners.

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