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Tax Peculiarities Mean Facebook Paid No Net Taxes For 2012
Frosty Piss writes "Despite earning more than $1 billion in profits last year, social media juggernaut Facebook paid zilch when it came to federal and state taxes in 2012. In fact, the website will actually be getting a refund totaling $429 million thanks to a tax reduction for executive stock options. In the coming years, Facebook will continue to get monster tax breaks, totaling about $3 billion. 'The employees cash in stock options, and at that point there is tax deduction for the company,' Robert McIntyre, of watchdog group Citizens for Tax Justice, said. 'Because even though it doesn't cost Facebook a nickel, the government treats it as wages and they get a deduction for it.'" (That's not to say that Facebook employees' salaries didn't get taxed.)
Forbes did an article last April about what some companies pay in taxes. Here's a few of the more recognizable companies.
Exxon Mobil - 42% ($27.3 billion paid on $41 billion in net income)
Chevron - 43.3% ($17.4 billion paid on $26.9 billion in net income)
JP Morgan Chase - 29.1% ($8.2 billion paid on $19 billion in net income)
WalMart - 32.6% ($5.9 billion paid on $15.7 billion in net income)
Microsoft - 15.9% ($5.3 billion on $23.5 billion)
Wells Fargo - 31.5% ($4.9 billion on $15.9 billion)
IBM - 24.5% ($4.2 bil on $15.9 bil)
Apple - 24.6% ($4 bil on $33 bil)
Intel - 27.2% ($3.3 bil on $12.9 bil)
Oracle - 23.6% ($2.93 bil on $9.7 bil)
Walt Disney - 33.8% ($2.3 bil on $5 bil)
McDonald's - 31.3% ($2.1 bil on $5.5 bil)
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2012/04/16/which-megacorps-pay-megataxes/
The reason they get this tax break is that only profits are taxed.
A few years back companies were literally printing money with their stock options. They could give any employee seven figures in stock without affecting their bottom line. So they did. In 2006 this was changed because it was unfair to all the other shareholders, who lost value in the company for each new share that was printed.
But if options are a business expense you can reduce your taxable profit by giving out lots of options.