key2thecup Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Facebook Gets a Multibillion-Dollar Tax Break It hasn’t drawn much attention, but Facebook’s first annual earnings report contains an accounting gem: a multibillion-dollar tax deduction for the cost of executive stock options and share awards. Even though Facebook (FB) reported $1.1 billion in pre-tax profits from U.S. operations in 2012, it will probably pay zero federal and state taxes—and even receive a federal tax refund of about $429 million—according to a Feb. 14 statement from Citizens for Tax Justice. The tax-research and -lobbying organization says companies such as Facebook should treat stock options the same in their reports to shareholders as they do in their tax filings. Citizens for Tax Justice calls the tax footnotes in Facebook’s Jan. 30 financial statement “an amazing admission,” but there’s nothing illegal about the breaks the company is claiming. Companies like Facebook are allowed to treat the cost of non-cash compensation, such as stock options, as an expense that reduces profits, essentially the way they treat cash compensation such as salaries. The difference is that Facebook—unlike, say, General Motors (GM)—relies heavily on stock options and restricted stock units as a form of compensation. It paid out a lot during its years as a private company that it must now recognize on its income statement and balance sheet. You won’t find any $429 million tax refund in Facebook’s financial statements. Indeed, the company says it had a $559 million federal tax liability in 2012. But that liability isn’t an actual payment. In a footnote, the company also said that it had a $1.03 billion “excess tax benefit” last year related to “stock option exercises and other equity awards.” That benefit is what flips the federal tax liability into a refund. (A small portion is applied against state taxes.) Facebook says that it anticipates reducing its tax liability in the future by an additional $2.17 billion by using further net operating loss carry-forwards that it has banked. Facebook spokeswoman Ashley Zandy declined to discuss the tax break but pointed to the transcript of Facebook executives’ conference call with analysts. On the call, Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman cited the accumulated tax benefits and noted that the company ended the fiscal year with nearly $10 billion in cash and investments, “giving us great flexibility and risk protection.” http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-15/facebook-gets-a-multi-billion-dollar-tax-break Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lillooet_Hillbilly Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 how come i never get a tax break like that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlayStation Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Why... When will you ever learn US? When will you finally get your head out of your -______- The rich get richer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hudson bay rules Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 And Zuckerberg had how much of his own money into FB at launch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancaster Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 No issue here at all. Those options will probably be exercised in the future, thus the company will be forking over money to fulfill those obligation. Plus all those years of operating losses to be applied to future gains, regular people have something similar too, just carrying capital loss forward. Basically a non-story for anyone who ever taken elementary accounting/taxation before. FB doesn't pay taxes because they carried over losses and have lowered net income by deferring the expense payment to a future date (the options). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armada Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwnstar Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Scmuckerburg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Colt 45s Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 People do not realize how compensation and taxation works. It would be nice to be paid with stock options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.