Jeff Bezos had lived in Washington state for 29 years when he abruptly decided to pick up and move to Florida in 2023. The billionaire claimed it was to be closer to his aging parents. No one bought it. The underlying reason for his move was obvious. Although neither Washington nor Florida has a state income tax, Washington had just become the first state in the country to adopt a dedicated capital gains tax. Given that most of Bezos’ fortune is tied up in Amazon stock, he had a lot on the line.
Just a year later, savvy reporters easily calculated that Bezos saved nearly a billion dollars by leaving Washington. After the move, he sold $13.6 billion of Amazon stock, and had it been subject to Washington’s 7% capital gains tax, Bezos would have been out $952 million.
In addition to being Amazon’s founder, Bezos is also a notable philanthropist. He’s publicly said he plans to donate most of his fortune to charity. Since moving to Florida, there are indications his attention has started to shift away from Washington. In 2024, he wrote a check for $5 million to the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust. In 2025, his Day 1 Families Fund provided $11.25 million in grants to Florida charities, edging out the $7.5 million that went to Washington charities.
The domino effect of Washington enacting a capital gains tax, Bezos relocating to Florida and Washington charities taking a backseat to those in Florida seemed like a straightforward example of government taxation impacting charitable giving. However, Philanthropy Roundtable wanted to see the big picture to determine if Bezos was part of a wider trend or just an isolated experience.
It takes a few years for the government to collect tax data and release it to the public. In 2026, the data for 2022 became available. That was the first year Washington’s capital gains tax was in effect. Philanthropy Roundtable fellow Jack Salmon combined that tax data with nonprofit filings and market return data, and a clear picture began to take shape.
He found high income earners have been fleeing the state since the capital gains tax was passed in 2021. That year, 2,300 high-income earners moved away. The next year, when the tax went into effect, another 6,300 left, followed by 5,900 in 2023. This reversed a long-term trend of positive net migration of high earners into Washington.
Salmon found this mass emigration of high earners had an immediate impact on charitable giving. Community foundations saw a 90% drop in non-cash donations in 2022. In the years since, donations continue to lag behind 2021 levels.
The fact that it is non-cash donations declining is significant. Many academics believe higher capital gains taxes incentivize individuals to donate their non-cash assets rather than selling them, thereby avoiding the higher taxes. Philanthropy Roundtable’s report provides the real-world evidence that refutes that theory – and Jeff Bezos provides the human face of that dynamic. Other states are already following Washington’s lead. Maryland now has a 2% capital gains tax and in Minnesota it’s 1%. It will be a couple more years before tax data is available to assess the impact of the tax in those states, enabling researchers to assess the impact. However, if what happened in Washington is any indication, those states will likely see an exodus of high-income earners and a drop in charitable donations, an unfortunate outcome.
Read the full research piece: “The Adverse Impact of Capital Gains Taxes on Philanthropy: A Case Study of Washington’s 2022 Capital Gains Tax”
