Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been served notice by the Los Angeles County for about $244,000 in overdue taxes and fees tied to his luxury jet. According to a report by LA Times, the bill comes as part of a sweeping effort by County Assessor Jeff Prang to track down ultrawealthy jet owners who failed to pay property taxes on their aircraft. Under California law, private jet owners must pay an annual 1% property tax on their planes, assessed based on where the aircraft is “habitually situated” when not in flight. That means it doesn’t matter where the plane is registered or where the owner lives—if the jet spends most of its time on the ground in L.A. County, taxes are owed locally.
Jeff Bezos was among the owners who received a final bill by the June 30
The bill is part of a broader effort by L.A. County Assessor Jeff Prang to track down wealthy jet owners who have skipped out on a required annual 1% property tax on their aircraft. Under California law, private planes are taxed based on where they’re “habitually situated” when not flying — meaning it doesn’t matter where the jet is registered or where its owner lives, only where the plane spends most of its time on the ground. Owners who miss the deadline are hit with a penalty on top of the base tax.This year, the assessor’s office mailed out hundreds of bills to owners it says failed to pay on time, a push expected to bring in an extra $38 million for county coffers. Prang, who won reelection in June, said the findings made clear just how widespread the underpayment problem has been, adding that his office had underestimated the scale of what it was missing.Bezos was among the owners who received a final bill by the June 30 deadline, according to the assessor’s list obtained by the Times through a public records request. The newspaper linked the unpaid jets to their owners using flight-tracking database JetSpy, whose spokesperson said the company traces ownership of planes registered to opaque LLCs, trusts and holding entities through aircraft filings, transmission data and flight-pattern analysis.
How the County is catching up
Investigators got a major boost last year when Prang’s office obtained detailed aircraft location data showing hundreds of planes that were frequently in the county but weren’t paying local taxes. That data, known as ADS-B Out, was mandated by the FAA by 2020 primarily as a collision-avoidance tool for air traffic controllers — but it has also given local tax assessors a far clearer picture of which jets are quietly sitting in their jurisdiction.The use of that data for tax enforcement has become politically contentious. Louisiana has barred local officials from accessing it, and some Republican lawmakers have pushed to restrict tax officials’ use of the data, arguing it compromises pilot privacy. Prang has dismissed those objections, calling them an excuse used by owners of corporate jets seeking special treatment unavailable to ordinary taxpayers.Plane owners are required to self-report their aircraft and its value to the assessor, and those whose jets spend significant time outside the county can get a reduced tax bill. The assessor’s office says it is bracing for a wave of appeals from out-of-state owners.
Jeff Bezos wasn’t alone
Jeff Bezos wasn’t alone. A jet linked to Rihanna owed about $104,000; Rams owner Stan Kroenke was billed roughly $290,000 across two planes; Nike co-founder Phil Knight, whose jet carries a custom “N1KE” tail number, owed about $89,000; retired baseball star Alex Rodriguez’s plane was billed around $11,000; “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone owed about $95,000; and television personality Judy Sheindlin, known as Judge Judy, received two bills and said she paid promptly, along with penalties, rather than fight them. Other unpaid jets were traced to Freeport LNG chairman Michael Smith, media companies including Fox, CBS and iHeartMedia, and Beverly Hills–based private equity firm Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, whose $46 million jet was also flagged. Representatives for Rihanna, Rodriguez and Kroenke did not respond to the Times’ inquiries, and most other representatives declined to comment on the record.