Fox News Can Get A Tax Break For Lying
An arcane line in the tax code may give the company a $200 million reward for its defamation settlement payment.
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The Lever has just broken the news that thanks to an obscure line in the tax code, Fox News says it can claim a tax write-off for its massive payment to settle its defamation lawsuit with Dominion. In effect, the company could get a lucrative tax break as a reward for lying to the country about the 2020 election. Details here:
Thanks to an arcane line in the tax code, Fox can deduct that settlement payment from its income taxes, according to a company spokesperson and tax experts consulted by The Lever. That’s because federal law allows taxpayers to write off many legal costs, providing that they are “ordinary and necessary” business expenses. The IRS has repeatedly affirmed that for major corporations, paying out settlements is just part of the cost of doing business.
Click here to read the whole story, which was amplified by this morning’s New York Times.
A decade ago, the IRS ruled that “amounts paid in settlement of lawsuits are currently deductible if the acts which gave rise to the litigation were performed in the ordinary conduct” of business.
So in essence, Fox News can get a tax break by claiming to tax authorities that lying about the 2020 election was merely the “ordinary conduct” of its business.
Let that sink in.
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