

Facebook to pay NO tax for 2012 and will even get tax refund of $429m - niix
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2279701/Facebook-pay-tax-2012-tax-refund-429MILLION-despite-1BILLION-profits.html
Facebook will not pay any tax for 2012 despite making $1.1 billion in pre-tax profits from U.S. operations, according to a report released on Thursday.&#60;p&#62;But Mark Zuckerberg's company will also get a multimillion dollar tax refund of around $429 million according to Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ).&#60;p&#62;The refunds reportedly come from tax deductions on executive stock options and share awards.
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gamblor956
At first I thought the Daily Mail was getting things wrong (as usual), but a
quick Google search shows that they are actually not exaggerating in this
instance.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/business/tax-breaks-
from-o...](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/business/tax-breaks-from-options-
a-windfall-for-businesses.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0).

Basically, companies get a deduction for stock options based on when the
options are exercised, not when they are given out (but record the options on
their books at the value when given). Thus, options given out at low values
(i.e., during the recession), generally result in a tax windfall to the
company.

Surprisingly, this tax quirk survived the Great Recession and the fiscal
crisis and is still on the books.

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paulhauggis
This just in: Facebook is legally paying taxes.

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Skoofoo
How can something like this happen?

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thatusertwo
Should we really be surprised that a company built on sketchy behaviour
continues its sketchy behaviour?

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chatmasta
Yeah! They should voluntarily pay more money to the government!

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thatusertwo
Yeah, lets give the super rich more and take from everyone else.

