Buy borrow die
Buy borrow die is a tax avoidance strategy used by the ultra-wealthy. The most famous example is allegedly Jeff Bezos, who pays himself $80,000 a year in salary from Amazon. This keeps his taxable income low. To fund his lifestyle, he borrows against his shares of Amazon stock, which are worth hundreds of billions of dollars. When he dies, his estate can pay off the loans by selling some of the assets.[1] Amazon also budgets $1.5 million per year for travel and security expenses for Bezos.
It is also a component of estate planning, because it gets around the estate tax, leaving a greater proportion of the estate to be transferred to the heirs.
Procedure
[edit | edit source]- Buy - Found a company, purchase stock, or be rewarded with stock in lieu of salary
- Borrow - Take out a loan from a bank using the stock as collatoral
- Die - Carry the loan until death, then let the estate sell stock to repay the loan.
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ Robert Frank (2026-05-20). "Jeff Bezos says there is 'no truth' to the 'buy borrow die' tax strategy". CNBC. Retrieved 2026-05-23.