Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing, Bonus Story of the Week.

Today on Forbes, how Jeff Bezos saved an estimated $1 billion in taxes after moving to Florida.

Billionaire Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos announced his move from the Seattle area to Florida in late 2023 in a sentimental Instagram post,

not mentioned that he would save a bundle in taxes. This past year alone, he likely saved

an estimated $1 billion. Bezos, the world's second richest person as of January 1st, sold $13.6 billion worth of Amazon stock as of December 18th last year,

more than the dollar amount sold by any other U.S. billionaire who's required to disclose transactions publicly.

Before 2024 sales, it had been two years since Bezos had last sold stock.

His pause began in January 2022.

The same month, Washington State, where he lived at the time,

first enacted a 7% state tax on long-term capital gains of more than $250,000,

which would include Amazon stock that Bezos has held for more than one year.

In the latter half of 2023, he splashed out $234 million to buy three mansions on Indian Creek,

a man-made barrier island known as Florida's billionaire bunker. He also registered to vote there

and filed a previously unreported declaration

of domicile in the state. Those were three critical steps to establish legal residency in Florida,

which famously doesn't impose income, capital gains, or estate taxes. On February 7, 2024,

Bezos began selling shares, offloading $8.5 billion worth of Amazon stock

in February alone. Then, in March, he filed a trading plan with the Securities and Exchange

Commission to sell an additional 25 million shares, about 3% of his Amazon stake. He completed those sales in November for gross proceeds

of an additional $5.1 billion. Had Bezos remained in Washington State, his 24 share sales would have

resulted in a $954 million state capital gains tax bill. That amount would have exceeded Washington State's net

collections from the tax in the fiscal year that ended in June, which totaled $848 million.

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