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Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3 Billion in Income. (truthout.org)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

The ITEP report cited by the article calls out the fact Tesla uses the accelerated method of depreciation and amortization instead of the straight line method. This means instead of depreciating an equal amount every year over the course of a machine's life, they are weighting these expenses more heavily in the near term in exchange for a lower expense (read: lower tax deduction) down the road. This Investopedia article explains it in more detail for those who care to learn more.

The ITEP report calls out other tax credits as well, such as carrying forward net operating losses from previous years. For anyone who cares, the full details are in their 2024 10-K filing. Open up the document, do a Ctrl+F search for "Note 13 – Income Taxes" and look at the tables on pages 80 through 82. I admit that there are several line items that I do not understand. I plugged them into Perplexity AI and asked it to explain them in layman's terms. My brain's too fried at this point, but I'll leave the link to that explanation here (again, in case anyone out there cares to learn more).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

Trump wants to lower corp taxes even more. So they'll become negative?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 20 hours ago

Socialism for big corporations. Privatized profits. Socialized losses for everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It would be so awesome if I could deduct food, housing, and utilities from my income for tax purposes.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I think you can, but most people take the standard deduction every year (which is supposed to represent these things) rather than calculate the itemized deduction with receipts.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I’ve itemized a bunch of times and you were pretty limited in what you could deduct. If you have a mortgage you can deduct the interest but not the payments. And before 2020 you deduct a portion of your household expenses if you had a home office.

But to a business those are all operating expenses and businesses only pay tax on profits.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That's such garbage. Corporate lobbying should have never been made legal.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Open an LLC and put all the utilities and food as operating expenses of it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

So you are going to open an LLC, transfer your wages to it(already taxed) so that you can buy everything for your life and then try and get a big deduction on the money that is left over(the LLC's "profit")

I'm not sure that adds up like you think it does....

[–] [email protected] 5 points 21 hours ago

Here's the thing: You are never going to pay for that. Just let the LLC go broke and then open other new.

Follow me for more financial advice.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 22 hours ago

I’m presuming you do your own taxes in your country, cause here you only can if you’re self employed, and you use your home for something like an office, I think.

[–] [email protected] 133 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Just a symptom of why the US has budget issues constantly every year.

Companies that can afford to pay taxes with absolutely zero negative impact to operations instead get a free ride. Meanwhile most individuals pay half their income to taxes and half the country lives paycheck to paycheck.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But when that sweet sweet money starts trickling down…

Any year now…

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I always like to point out that the billionaire tax cut only encouraged companies like this to give higher bonuses to their already rich executives and taking money away from their employees. I’m no accountant, but I’m willing to bet those bonuses factor in to how little taxes the corporation pays.

You want money to trickle down? Tax the executives 70% over $10 million of income. Either the company will take a profit and pay taxes, pay their executive bonuses and the majority will just go to taxes (and the executive will still be filthy fucking rich), OR they will increase how much the bottom earners get who will be paying a much lower amount in taxes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Raise the standard deduction to 100k. Tax anything more at 30%

[–] [email protected] 3 points 20 hours ago

This does nothing about the issue I presented.

[–] [email protected] 104 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You know what would help this? Putting another face on Mount Rushmore and renaming bodies of water.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Don't forgot reopening Guantanomo and letting the FAA collapse will also greatly benefit normal Americans

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago

And erasing queer people. That will definitely help.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Guantanamo never closed, having a torture camp is just too useful

[–] skulblaka 8 points 21 hours ago

This is true. However, some context:

When Dubya opened Gitmo, it contained around 800 prisoners.
When Obama left office, that number was down to 40.
Trump deleted the government office that works to release Gitmo prisoners and ignored it for his entire first term.
On Biden's entry, he re-opened that office and by the end of his term, the total number of Gitmo prisoners has been reduced down to 15.
Trump has now ordered Gitmo to reopen for an additional 30,000 prisoners and will likely again kill the organization responsible for appropriately dealing with those prisoners.

I agree with you that this place should never have existed. I agree that we should destroy it. I only ask,as with most things today, that people pay attention to who has been trying to destroy it and who has been celebrating it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 23 hours ago

Whats this about another face? I'm going to assume McKinley, since he needs a mountain in every state for some reason.

[–] JohnDClay 47 points 1 day ago

Because due to fancy accounting they haven't made a profit? Reminds me of how movie studios can make even the most successful movies unprofitable on paper to get out of profit sharing deals.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 day ago

Can't wait until next year! "Tesla received 600 million, after tax payments of $0, despite $3 billion in income, 2/3rds of which were also from the federal government."

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 day ago (2 children)

And will never have to again. I still don't know why people voted for President Musk.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Hopefully this American stuff is just something you read in the newspaper while turning the pages.

I’m happy for you. I hope you have a great life in your new home.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

I appreciate it, but unfortunately my wife is still on that side of the pond. Right now I'm worried about her even getting here safely.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Or: how Democrats funded Trump.