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Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income
81–90 of 267 posts
Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income
#82I 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…
When you spend money on manufacturing and equipment, a company does not get to write off the full amount against their taxes when they buy it - they may have to spread it over a period of useful life of that equipment.
Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least among economists it is not that polarizing. Most agree we should get rid of corporate tax. [0] In reality a corporation cannot pay taxes any more than a table can. Only people can pay taxes. So who pays the corporate tax? It must come from the corporation's consumers, employees, or shareholders (or some combination thereof). Raising the corporate tax is just a sneaky way of raising tax on one or more of thos…
>Only people can pay taxes. But corporations are people..? Can't have it both ways right :/ Unless I'm missing something here.
You could probably get most economists to agree people shouldn't pay income tax either; they are a distorting influence. Land/economic rent taxes really are the way to go.
Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least among economists it is not that polarizing. Most agree we should get rid of corporate tax. [0] In reality a corporation cannot pay taxes any more than a table can. Only people can pay taxes. So who pays the corporate tax? It must come from the corporation's consumers, employees, or shareholders (or some combination thereof). Raising the corporate tax is just a sneaky way of raising tax on one or more of thos…
>Only people can pay taxes. But corporations are people..? Can't have it both ways right :/ Unless I'm missing something here.
Yes. Corporations are made of people, and they produce goods and services for other people. The people that compose that corporation pay the tax, or the people they sell to.
Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
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There were no value judgements in either of my posts. Like the article, you’ve not presented any reasons for your opinion or attitude or derision. I value reinvestment, but now you’ve insulted a potential ally. What good does this do your cause?
Fixed
Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income
#86I 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…
Tesla's a crypto company. 25% of Tesla's earnings last quarter were crypto:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/tesla-600-million-bitcoin-gai...
Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income
#87Can a private citizen do the same things that companies do? People reinvest in themselves too.
Not legally.
Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income
#88I may be wrong, but I understand this is because the company invests all of its income into its business - which means more jobs, work for other companies, and so on. I think it better money goes into the economy, in a reasonably efficient way, rather than being taken by the State, and used in an unreasonably inefficient way.
It is especially absurd though when you have a business that depends on ROADS.
As if the roads just pay for themselves.
Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
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> Do you think they are sitting on a big pile of cash? NO No, that would be a big pile of Bitcoin[1], actually [1]: https://fortune.com/2025/01/30/tesla-profits-bitcoin-crypto-...
That pile is worth 1% of their yearly revenue, so I wouldn't really say it counts.
Re: Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3B in Income
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep. Paying taxes is the right thing to do for the country. Yet the system gets purposely broken, people lose faith that any system could work, tax dollars run for the shadows, and the cycle accelerates. I don’t know what the fix is. We need to restore faith, but you need revenue to build faith, and revenue depends on established faith.
I'm not sure it's the de facto right thing to do. Recall that the USA didn't tax income until 1913, relying primarily on tariffs and excise taxes to fund the federal government. And yet, the country was doing just fine before that—expanding its infrastructure, winning wars, and growing its economy. The introduction of income tax fundamentally changed the size and scope of government. With the current size of federal…
"Doing just fine before that" is an interesting interpretation of history.