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Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income

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41–50 of 267 posts

Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income

#41

I wish this article was written with a less biased tone. I'm genuinely interested in understanding it better. As far as I can tell, the article cites two things: $500M tax savings by using an accelerated depreciation schedule (unclear if they saved $500M more by using accelerated vs a regular depreciation schedule, but I assume no) and they claimed $300M in tax credits. The article doesn't address the other $1.5B, pr…

> Tax credits seem to make sense for an EV company?

That's one of the things that I've found odd. A lot of people that very strongly support things like tax credits for EV cars, in order to fight climate change, will then turn around and talk about how terrible they are when they're actually used, such as in the article here. A lot of times people don't seem to have a consistent view of what they actually want, and will be outraged by the results of policies they themselves supported.

One can only imagine the headlines if these environmental credits were cancelled ("anti-environmental actions are going to bring about climate change and doom us all").

Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income

#44

Sounds like this is the result of "accelerated depreciation." As far as I can tell, that's a strategy that ultimately allows you to pay less tax one year and more tax in a later year. I don't have a strong feeling on the value of that particular tax law, but it seems somewhat less nefarious than the implied "not paying taxes at all."

I think this is a tax avoidance strategy that may save a lot on taxes. E.g. use accelerated depreciation to avoid taxes in a really profitable year and then if you have a loss or much lower profit in a subsequent year, you have successfully avoided a bunch of taxes. Not an accountant or tax lawyer so there may be a catch here.

Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income

#45
post #4

> "hoard wealth" > No mention of reinvestment > "Tesla was able to avoid paying ... taxes ... by claiming ... tax credits" (presented as bad somehow) > "We're not backing down" Where or where is the media coverage that attempts to speak to people who don't already buy in to the premise? This isn't journalism it might as well be blogging. Congratulations, you've made the world more polarized!

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Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income

#46
post #12

Sounds like this is the result of "accelerated depreciation." As far as I can tell, that's a strategy that ultimately allows you to pay less tax one year and more tax in a later year. I don't have a strong feeling on the value of that particular tax law, but it seems somewhat less nefarious than the implied "not paying taxes at all."

I'm guessing in a different year the rate will be much lower: afterall, he gave away $1 million a day to a random registered republican voter in a key swing state to get around laws that prevent buying votes and paying people to register to vote.

That was with his money (you know richest person on the planet) and had nothing to do with Tesla.

Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income

#49
post #23

> Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labor. In other words, no experience with how corporate taxes work.

If 0% is how they work, then they don't work.

How much in taxes should you pay on a loss?

Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income

#50
post #9
post #4

> "hoard wealth" > No mention of reinvestment > "Tesla was able to avoid paying ... taxes ... by claiming ... tax credits" (presented as bad somehow) > "We're not backing down" Where or where is the media coverage that attempts to speak to people who don't already buy in to the premise? This isn't journalism it might as well be blogging. Congratulations, you've made the world more polarized!

In what world is a massively profitable company paying almost nothing in taxes polarizing?

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