It’s shaping up to be another multi-billion dollar year for Facebook, but don’t expect the social networking site to pay it forward: according to a new analysis, the website will pay no taxes this year and will instead likely receive a federal refund.
That’s according to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), who on Tuesday this week released the 2013 edition of his annual “Wastebook” report detailing instances of what he considers unnecessary government spending.
“When it comes to spending your money, those in Washington tend to see no waste, speak no waste and cut no waste,” Coburn writes in the introduction to this year’s 177-page report.
In 2013, Coburn recalls, millions of dollars in funds were wasted on frivolous projects, while at the same time members of Congress were saying “yes” to a sequestration plan that some insist is drastically weakening the national security of the United States by slashing funds for the Department of Defense.
There’s a $124,955 3D printer that NASA will use to make pizzas,
Coburn notes, and millions spent on hyping government endeavors
by way of expensive contracts cut with Hollywood studios. But
instead of collecting taxes from one of the country’s top
businesses — and one enjoyed by almost everyone — the government
will likely give money back to Facebook in 2013, Coburn claims.
Last year, the senator says, “one of America’s largest
companies avoided paying federal or state income taxes, and is
poised to do so again this year. In fact, they will likely
receive a check from the federal government in the form of a tax
refund.”
“Despite bringing in more than $1 billion in US pretax
profits last year, the social-media giant Facebook reported a
combined $429 million refund from their federal and state tax
filings,” he continues, including roughly $295 million from
Uncle Sam.
According to Coburn’s report, last year Facebook relied on an
employee stock option tax deduction to lower the amount of owed
income taxes by around $1.03 billion.
“By providing stock options as a major form of their
compensation, to date Facebook has claimed $3.2 billion in
federal and state stock option deductions, $1.03 billion of which
was used to offset their total US pretax profit of $1.1 billion
in 2012 and $429 million was refunded from its 2010 and 2011 tax
bills,” he says.
“The remaining $2.17 billion in stock option tax deductions
can now be carried forward by the company and used to offset
future tax liabilities,” he says. “This rollover, in
addition to currently outstanding employee stock options, may
once again make this year’s tax bill disappear.”
Coburn writes there is reason to believe Facebook will have the
same success this year as they did in 2012, when they were
refunded almost $300 million. Meanwhile, he writes elsewhere in
the report, Uncle Sam has been issuing other arguably unnecessary
paychecks, including the one that will ideally help a contractor
create a 3D-printed pizza pie. That endeavor, Coburn notes, is
earmarked separately from the $1 million already put aside to be
used for the nation’s Martian food development budget.