Financial experts predicted that billionaire Jeff Bezos’ move to Florida would benefit him, and they were right. So far, the tax savings that the Amazon founder has achieved are huge, estimated at up to 1 billion USD this year alone.

According to Forbes, since moving to Miami, Florida in early 2024, billionaire Bezos has sold about $13.6 billion in Amazon shares.

With not only no state income tax but also no capital gains tax, Florida is much friendlier to billionaires like Bezos who are actively selling their properties.

Meanwhile, in 2022, Washington state (where Jeff Bezos previously lived) imposed a new 7% capital gains tax on the sale of stocks or bonds worth over $250,000.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ two adjacent properties worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Miami’s Indian Creek Village.

Forbes calculates that if Bezos had still lived in Washington when he sold his shares, he would have faced a state capital gains tax bill of $954 million.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos announced his move from Seattle to Miami’s ultra-expensive Indian Creek Village late last year. In an Instagram post, Bezos described the move as both personal and business-friendly. He wanted to be closer to his parents in Miami, and to Blue Origin, his aerospace company, in Cape Canaveral.

While he didn’t explicitly mention the tax savings, wealth managers at the time told Fortune that he clearly figured he would save a pretty penny, especially since Miami’s lack of income or capital gains taxes is a big reason why so many of the ultra-wealthy have flocked there (and continue to do so) in recent years.

Washington state enacted a capital gains tax in 2022 to help pay for early education and child care programs and other school projects.

The Amazon founder made the most of his move to the Miami area, spending nearly a quarter of a billion dollars on three mansions in Indian Creek Village, where he lives with his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez.

Billionaire Bezos bought a mansion on Indian Creek Island in August 2023 and then bought the property next door. (Photo: Backgrid)

Another benefit for the super-rich living in Florida is that the state has no estate tax, which could save heirs billions of dollars.

“For someone with that much wealth, the estate tax savings alone could be as much as $10 billion, not to mention the income tax savings, which are still growing,” John Pantekidis, managing partner and general counsel at TwinFocus, which manages more than $7 billion for ultra-high net worth families, told Fortune earlier this year.

“Florida is very, very convenient for someone like Jeff Bezos. They make it very cost-effective for people like Jeff to live there. It’s ideal, it’s paradise,” John added.

Indian Creek, often referred to as the “Billionaire’s Bunker,” boasts many famous residents, including football legend Tom Brady. (Photo: NY Post)

Despite cashing out billions of dollars in stock and stepping down as CEO of Amazon, billionaire Jeff Bezos is still ranked as the world’s second-richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a fortune of $250 billion, behind only Elon Musk. Bezos’ $1 billion tax savings are only about 0.4% of his current net worth.

Indian Creek Village is a private island nicknamed the “billionaire’s bunker”, which is often chosen by celebrities and billionaires as a place to live thanks to its high security.

Although it has only a few dozen homes, Indian Creek Village is a separate administrative unit, with its own mayor and local government.

Jeff Bezos paid $87 million for a third estate in Indian Creek.

Indian Creek is currently home to about 82 residents, including Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and other famous people such as investor Carl Icahn, Ivanka Trump (daughter of US President-elect Donald Trump), singer David Guetta, football legend Tom Brady…

According to the latest 2023 US Census, it is one of only two municipalities in Miami County with less than 100 citizens.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos spent $125 million to buy a mansion in Indian Creek Village in August 2023, and just two months later, he bought another mansion next door for $107 million.

In April this year, the billionaire continued to spend $87 million on a third estate in Indian Creek.

It is known that the new house of Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez is located next to the villa of billionaire Jeff Soffer and football legend Tom Brady. The house has an area of ​​12,135 m2 with 6 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, an outdoor swimming pool, a golf course and a spacious campus with many trees.