Netflix CEO Reed Hastings earned $36.1 million between salary and stock options in 2018, the same year the leading streaming company paid no income taxes.
Reed Hastings’ salary as CEO of Netflix jumped 48 percent since 2017, making $700,000 in salary and $35.4 million in stock, according to Variety.
In 2018, the company reportedly earned more than $845 million in profit, but paid no U.S. state or federal taxes. However, the company did apparently pay taxes to foreign governments to the tune of about $131 million. Despite not paying taxes in America, the streaming giant has no problem featuring films and series that glorify politicians who push for higher taxes.
A new movie set to premiere on Netflix in May glorifies socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has previously suggested taxing the wealthy at top rates of 70 percent to fund programs like the Green New Deal.
“You know, you look at our tax rates back in the ‘60s, and when you have a progressive tax rate system, your tax rate, you know, let’s say from 0 to $75,000 may be 10 percent or 15 percent, et cetera,” she said in January.
“But once you get to like the tippy tops, on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 percent or 70 percent, that doesn’t mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate, but it means that as you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more.”
Reed Hastings, like many of his fellow Hollywood power players, financially supports in Democrats. In 2018, he donated over $500,000 to the Democrat-supporting Senate Majority PAC to influence the fall midterm elections.