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In 2025, Meta paid an effective federal tax rate of 3.5%

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Re: In 2025, Meta paid an effective federal tax rate of 3.5%

#61

Post by HardCodedBias »

HardCodedBias wrote: post #56

IIUC Meta is spending more on capital (due to AI buildout) than they are receiving in profits. Given Depreciation this is expected. And ... the intent of the law, to prompt capital investment. What's the scandal, exactly?

Wait it gets worse for the "article"

ITEP gets the number by dividing Meta’s current federal tax expense ($2.82B) by its domestic pretax income ($79.64B), which is about 3.5–3.6%.

But Meta’s total 2025 GAAP effective tax rate was actually 29.6%, because it also booked a huge $15.93B charge tied to the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax and valuation allowances.

Re: In 2025, Meta paid an effective federal tax rate of 3.5%

#63

Post by loeg »

ovi256 wrote: post #48
shubhamjain wrote: post #14

Where is this figure coming from? According to Meta's press release, the effective tax rate is 30% [1]. > The full year 2025 provision for income taxes includes the effects of the implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act during the third quarter of 2025. Absent the valuation allowance charge as of the enactment date, our full year 2025 effective tax rate would have decreased by 17 percentage points to 13%, co…

I bet the two sources won't agree on what values go into the denominator and / or numerator of their effective tax rate calculations. It can be as simple as the 3.5% being a calculated rate on revenue rather than profit

You can't just throw revenue in the denominator, though. Business tax is assessed on income. If you're going to make a claim about tax rate using an unconventional metric, you need to be explicit about what you've done; Reich isn't.

Re: In 2025, Meta paid an effective federal tax rate of 3.5%

#64

Post by randomtoast »

brynnbee wrote: post #58
randomtoast wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My intentions are sincere, maybe it is the wording.

I would imagine it's more you're being skeptical of something that is unpopular to be skeptical about. It's like someone saying climate change is impacting our planet, and then asking "source?" in response.

No, that's not correct. I ask "Source?" when someone makes a claim that goes against popular belief, such as: "climate change is not impacting our planet." I do think "Source?" is generally considered a low-effort response, so it's the wording I guess, not the context.

Re: In 2025, Meta paid an effective federal tax rate of 3.5%

#65

Post by butterbomb »

vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #42
butterbomb wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's only available for big corporations because as a self-employed, it's close to 30%. Well maybe instead of complaining you should simply just generate more economic value. If Meta disappeared tomorrow it would hit the US economy, if you disappeared tomorrow it wouldn’t even be noticeable in the stock market.

Sorry that’s a horrible take. Basically you are embracing “too big to fail”.

It’s more like “might makes right” I think, and it’s not really me embracing it, as much as realizing this is the ideology of our ruling elites and they aren’t afraid to be frank about it anymore.

Re: In 2025, Meta paid an effective federal tax rate of 3.5%

#66

Post by loeg »

randomtoast wrote: post #60
loeg wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think public companies are just lying in their audited financial statements?

No, I think both of the following statements can be true at the same time: 1. The audited financial statement meets all requirements and is accurate according to the relevant definitions, stating that the effective federal tax rate is 30%. 2. They pay an effective federal tax rate of 3%.

I don't think those statements can be true at the same time, without significant qualifications on (2) in a way that make it meaningless. Certainly not the reasonable straightforward reading of the phrase.

Re: In 2025, Meta paid an effective federal tax rate of 3.5%

#67

Post by jonas21 »

randomtoast wrote: post #47
jannyfer wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is another possibility. “Source?” is a low effort comment, but GP’s is not.

[flagged]

This is also a low effort comment, despite the word count.

In contrast, shubhamjain found Meta's earnings release for the specified time period, quoted numbers that appear to contradict the claim, and provided a link to the release. This adds to the conversation, while a comment that says "Source?" or a few paragraphs that can be reduced to "Source?" do not.

Re: In 2025, Meta paid an effective federal tax rate of 3.5%

#68

Post by braebo »

hsuduebc2 wrote: post #23
yoyohello13 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it’s just more visible now but it seems like these companies are really accelerating in their evil lately. Probably because they know this admin’s going to do jack shit to protect people. Would be funny if it wasn’t also so scary.

I have the same observation. Not really sure what is the driver.

Unchecked power deteriorates empathy as classes drift further apart — an inevitability of un(der)regulated capitalism driving unprecedented inequality. This accelerates when the billionaire class seizes the levers of power and dismantle entire regulatory bodies like the Epstein class has done with the US government.

Re: In 2025, Meta paid an effective federal tax rate of 3.5%

#69

Post by gojomo »

loeg wrote: post #63
ovi256 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet the two sources won't agree on what values go into the denominator and / or numerator of their effective tax rate calculations. It can be as simple as the 3.5% being a calculated rate on revenue rather than profit

You can't just throw revenue in the denominator, though. Business tax is assessed on income. If you're going to make a claim about tax rate using an unconventional metric, you need to be explicit about what you've done; Reich isn't.

If you're Robert Reich, you can! You can make up anything, and someone will submit it to HN to waste everyone's time!

Re: In 2025, Meta paid an effective federal tax rate of 3.5%

#70

Post by kolbe »

brynnbee wrote: post #58
randomtoast wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My intentions are sincere, maybe it is the wording.

I would imagine it's more you're being skeptical of something that is unpopular to be skeptical about. It's like someone saying climate change is impacting our planet, and then asking "source?" in response.

Except he was skeptical about Meta's effective tax rate being 3%. Why are you making up scenarios that aren't real to justify hurting him?
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