On $1 billion profit, Facebook paid MUCH less than nothing in taxes

So Facebook is the 47%

• Link
• Report this comment

Moocher.

No wonder our President wants tax reform.

• Link
• Report this comment

Zuck had better double, no, triple his security detail.

(Ok, problem solved.)

• Link
• Report this comment

Yet another reason to hate FB.

• Link
• Report this comment

And in Georgia, that new senate buffoon Beach has introduced a bill to eliminate GA income taxes.

• Link
• Report this comment

One of my goals in life is to die never having even been to Facebook, let alone having a presence there. Heck, my sister has a page there and I’ve never even seen it. (To be honest, I did try once, but it wanted me to login first)

• Link
• Report this comment

Okay, I give up. The point of this particular blog is what?

• Link
• Report this comment

Google and Ask have been no help with this so far. One question worth asking:

How much of the $429 million is tax that Facebook actually PAID in earlier years and is now getting back?

• Link
• Report this comment

ODS causes delusions that Obama wrote the tax code.

• Link
• Report this comment

Welcome to the 47%…

• Link
• Report this comment

“Okay, I give up.”

Finally

• Link
• Report this comment

“And in Georgia, that new senate buffoon Beach has introduced a bill to eliminate GA income taxes.”

Yeah we’d be dumb to follow the example of other states with relatively booming economies like South Dakota, Texas and Florida which have no state income tax.

That would be just stupid. Georgia should hike up state income tax rates to about 25%. Even the dumpster fire of a state known as California would be put to shame by that!! Imagine all of the food stamps we could buy with that money!! All of our problems would be solved!!

• Link
• Report this comment

Thanks the huge market for accountants, tax advisors, and money managers in the good ole USA.

It’s a mighty powerful lobby.

• Link
• Report this comment

THEY ARE OVER-TAXED AND OVER-REGULATED !

• Link
• Report this comment

You read, on these blogs, so many “conservatives” wailing about the abuse of welfare, using racist code words, etc. Why don’t they wail about the real abuse of our tax dollars – corporate welfare and the coddling of the wealthy? Most of these “conservatives” that post here are middle class or below.

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay- you are jumping to a conclusion that a (incentive) stock option is similar to a carried interest in PE. Simply not true as stock options have an alt min aspect and the character is dependent on the holding period and method of disposition. There is also a side to a (technology) start up risk taking of time whereby the start up tech company cannot pay cash comp (unlike the cash rich gov’t sponsored green energy ponzi scheme companies). I hear the we are going to do more- you should promote yourself as a “green energy blog” and get your share of taxpayer money handed to you.

Anyway- why bother- you are strong on local issues and travelin’ music so bring it on.

• Link
• Report this comment

So is Facebook considered one of the ‘takers’??

• Link
• Report this comment

No surprise. Our tax code needs to be simplified, new lower income tax brackets and ending deductions.

This may not happen for some time, and until then we will continue to see the effects of cronyism.

• Link
• Report this comment

The point is if a corporate entity makes a profit, pays no taxes, then gets a nice gov’t rebate check, doesn’t that make them a taker on a much larger scale??? If you can’t see that, then go ahead and keep carrying their water, they love you for it..

• Link
• Report this comment

So is Facebook considered one of the ‘takers’??

Well, they sure as sh-t don’t make anything. But neither do the banksters, and they’re a protected class–more free money than they know what to do with.

so, why not Zuck & co. as well.

• Link
• Report this comment

Since no one else knows what the point of this blog is either

In its advance ODS stages, when a patient is completely beyond all hope, the brain ceases all functioning but the fingers type mindlessly. This is known in medical science as the Headless Chicken effect. It often includes a claims to know what others know as if the mindnumb allows the patient to suck the brainwaves of others in a zombie like fashion.

• Link
• Report this comment

tossed around like a cork in the ocean.

Those who put us there are… corksoakers?

• Link
• Report this comment

Have they broken the law?

Nope.

If you were a stock holder, would you not want them to take advantage of every deduction they can?

Yep.

• Link
• Report this comment

Peadawg, Doggone, & getalife

Are they “taking” anything they didn’t already “make?” If not, they aren’t “mooching.”

• Link
• Report this comment

I think Obammy [sic]should sieze [sic] all of Facebooks [sic] wealth by executive order and redistribute it giving ZSuckerberbg [sic] a mere pittance

thanks.

Hey, F. Sink? Since you’re apparently not leaving, thought you’d appreciate this clear-headed take on the Real Purpose of This Here Blog Post.

• Link
• Report this comment

F. Sinkwich
Okay, I give up.

Thank you, thank you Jay. It has been a long time in trying but you have finally succeeded!

• Link
• Report this comment

This reason that they are showing a billion dollar profit while not paying taxes is all related to timing….for financial reporting purposes under generally accepted accounting principles the expense is reported when the executive stock options are vested. For tax purposes, the company is not allowed a deduction on nonqualified stock options until the stock is exercised and is thus taxable to the executive (at ordinary income rates). The only lesson that we seem to be learning here is that there can be timing differences (sometimes quite significant ones) between financial reporting to investors and reporting to Uncle Sam.

• Link
• Report this comment

We need to raise taxes on the poor, or make cuts to their healthcare, to make up the lost $429 million being paid to facebook and their executives. After all, its not fair to punish success.

• Link
• Report this comment

Sunshine !!!

• Link
• Report this comment

Stop crying about our deficit then cons.

• Link
• Report this comment

Let’s also force retirees to retire at 75 to claim the social security they paid into…and then we need to CUT TAXES MORE ON CORPORATIONS (they are people and have rights too, you know).

• Link
• Report this comment

If “Corporations are people, my friend”, then why aren’t they paying taxes?

driveby

• Link
• Report this comment

Class of ‘98
February 15th, 2013
12:53 pm
Yeah we’d be dumb to follow the example of other states with relatively booming economies like South Dakota, Texas and Florida which have no state income tax.

Booming economies? In 2011 Texas had a 3.3% growth rate (mostly low wage service jobs), Florida 0.5%, and ND 7.7% which is being fueled by shale oil. California growth was 2.0%, Georgia at 1.7%. Perhaps GA should aim low – and try to match the growth of California.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Lance, agreed, The Economist suggests eliminating the deduction on mortgage interests, any of you homeowners for that? NOT cave,”keep up the good fight”, home owners……only. You and GT are on the same “mindwave” frequency.

• Link
• Report this comment

pea,

Obama derangement syndrome.

You should know this by now.

• Link
• Report this comment

Don’t confuse these people with facts, Matt. It messes with their worldview.

• Link
• Report this comment

Pea, another poster gave you the answer by the time I had returned. http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2013/02/15/with-hagel-filibuster-senate-republicans-shame-themselves/#comment-1233654

• Link
• Report this comment

Anyone on here offered the opportunity to go to work for Facebook(with stock options) in hindsight would jump at the opportunity. Don’t say you wouldn’t. You would be proud if one of your kids got a job there(in hindsight). You’re just spouting leftist rhetoric, and you’re being hypocritical. It’s not becoming.

• Link
• Report this comment

“back AT conservatives”… jeez. I suck at this.

• Link
• Report this comment

So is Facebook considered one of the ‘takers’??

Well, they sure as sh-t don’t make anything
_____________________
Kinda like lawyers.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Taxpayers then cough up an additional $429 million paid to Facebook, ”
.
You lie.
Taxpayers don’t……… “cough up” nothing.
.
Tax-payers are FORCED to disgorge wealth at the tip of a gun by the State.
Facebook doesn’t FORCE anyone to do anything with anyone’s wealth.
.
Who’s the bad guy?
.
Pansies.
.
Who’s the bad guy?

• Link
• Report this comment

Anyone on here offered the opportunity to go to work for Facebook(with stock options) in hindsight would jump at the opportunity

And this means that those same people can’t be critical of stupid tax policy, nor of foolish political rhetoric aimed at demonizing the “moocher” class?

Please go sell this iteration of “Al Gore is FAT!” somewhere else.

• Link
• Report this comment

That Black Guy
Kinda like lawyers.
………………………………….
Cheney woulda shot them in the face….book..

• Link
• Report this comment

sfd@1:22
If “down the middle” is anything like “factual” or “objective,” you did great.
Here’s hoping the “how’d I do” wasn’t addressed just to Peadawg.

• Link
• Report this comment

Even if Facebook DID pay taxes……….it wouldn’t be enough for progs.
Not a wimper on this……….today…………one of thousands of “programs” …….funded……….”at the tip of a government gun”————
(it’s only 42million dollars)———–.
“A bill was just introduced in the Senate, S.252, called the Prematurity Research Expansion and Education for Mothers who deliver Infants Early Reauthorization Act. Still trying to find authorization for it somewhere in my copy of the Constitution. Yet, it is certainly likely to pass. Now, this is a rather insignificant bill that the CBO estimates will cost “only” $4 million in 2014 and $42 million over the 2014-2018 period. But it illustrates the complete and utter disregard that Congress (Democrats and Republicans) has for the Constitution and for controlling spending.”
.
lol

• Link
• Report this comment

Imagine if this cruise ship that got stranded was a government run situation? You cons would be all over it. But this is private industry gone BAD. These cruise ships fly the flags of countries with very little regulation, lowering cost but increasing the chance of things like…fires in the boiler room leading to poop in the hallways.

• Link
• Report this comment

Every dollar less that Facebook paid in taxes is…………………………………less money that the state can spend on HellFire missiles.
.
For those still able to feel, and have a shred of decency left………………………………..Isn’t this a good thing?

• Link
• Report this comment

bookman doesnt care about the money from taxpayers that barack has flushed down the toilet.

Workers at a Michigan battery plant built with a $150 million federal stimulus grant but never opened played games and watched movies while their wages were paid for by U.S. taxpayers, according to a government report.

South Korea-based LG Chem, which used the grant money to build a factory that was supposed to make batteries for the Chevy Volt, has paid back $842,000 in wages it improperly billed to the government, but still has no plans to start production in the facility or return the grant. The company makes Volt batteries at another plant in South Korea.

• Link
• Report this comment

Oh, a few factual errors. Incentive Stock Options are the only options that do not have automatic taxable income on the date of exercise, up to $100,000 per year (non qualified options are ordinary income to the person exercising on the date of option-the income is reported on the employee’s W-2 to the extent the the options are in the money). So…..the person has taxable income (and aren’t they in California) at 35% fed and 9-10% California (now 39.6% and 13.3% California), not capital gains. They then have to sell the stock to pay the 40-50% tax. They would only get ‘long-term capital gain treatment’ (15% quoted rate) if they exercised the options and piad taxes at time and held stock for a year. The company is normally also required to withhold 28% tax on the exercise date for Feds.

Stock options are compensation to employees/execs. Employee records income and company expense, just like a salary. This is no different unless the person has an ISO (few do, and amounts are limited per year, with remainder becoming non qualifieds if exercised).

And the ISO holder can exercise $100k per year of options and potentially face AMT tax anyway.

But don’t let facts get in the way of a good piece. Facebook didn’t pay taxes because they did not have TAXABLE income, if they received money back, that is because they paid it in prior years and can claim a refund.

What do you suggest, that stock options should not be taxable? Please, that’s one of craziest things I’ve ever heard.

• Link
• Report this comment

And yes, I do recognize the value in software development, and obviously Facebook isn’t simply a cannibalistic enterprise (although it certainly can seem that way).

Nope they are a “repackager for profit of the private information of millions of individuals who voluntary disgorge the private information that they would scream if the government asked for it all.”

• Link
• Report this comment

American Christian & Patriot!

February 15th, 2013
1:33 pm

Their corporate tax should have been ZERO in the first place.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Yeah because THAT worked so well in Ireland.

Idiot.

• Link
• Report this comment

stands for decibels

February 15th, 2013
1:31 pm
Kinda like lawyers.

Yep. Thing is, it seems perfectly OK for folks from both sides to take pot shots are the legal profession–who hasn’t made a lawyer joke?–but there are all manner of skimmer-class service-industry folk who are more or less immune.

And yes, I do recognize the value in software development, and obviously Facebook isn’t simply a cannibalistic enterprise (although it certainly can seem that way). But this notion that all Captains of Industry are brave entrepreneurial souls who shouldn’t have mean things said about them when they’re clearly playing us, is ridiculous.

and yes I know I’m probably preaching to the choir here.
_________________________________________
dB, I’m so glad you put that last line in there. Saved me from having to say I agreee with you (darnit, I just did).

• Link
• Report this comment

Every dollar less stolen by the state……………..is less this—————–

From Lawrence Vance—–
.

A high school teacher writes about the military recruiting in his high school during P.E. classes: “The military guys were asking what careers they were interested in. Of course each one ended in how the military offers it, it’s better, and free college. One kid responded he’d like to be a professional video game player. They then explained how flying drones is a lot like playing a video game.”
Thanks George W. Bush for giving us the No Child Left Behind Act that made this recruiting possible.
Obama loves it.
.
sad

• Link
• Report this comment

It’s only fair that Facebook, like other US domiciled corporations, get those breaks given that, according to hidden camera testimony, those other 47% have already mooched their share off the taxpayers.

• Link
• Report this comment

Monty: No one on here angry at the unions for forcing GM to pay someone a salary of over 100,000 a year to work an assembly line without an education and then retire with a huge pension?

Are they also driving a MARTA bus?

• Link
• Report this comment

American Christian & Patriot!

February 15th, 2013
1:33 pm
Their corporate tax should have been ZERO in the first place.

I wonder why people who put ‘Christian’ in their name always say such un Christian things?

• Link
• Report this comment

Keep – Nope they are a “repackager for profit of the private information of millions of individuals who voluntary disgorge the private information that they would scream if the government asked for it all.”

It’s a consignment shop…that fleeced wallstreet

• Link
• Report this comment

Cherokee
I wonder why people who put ‘Christian’ in their name always say such un Christian things?
……………………………………………………………………………
They want to put you off guard so they can steal your land.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Okay, I give up. The point of this particular blog is what?”

Rubes gonna yawp.

• Link
• Report this comment

Nope they are a “repackager for profit of the private information of millions of individuals who voluntary disgorge the private information that they would scream if the government asked for it all.”

You got that right Cowboy. No facebook on this computer. Biggest piece of spyware EVER, and folks worshipt them for it.

• Link
• Report this comment

комиссар (Occupation)

February 15th, 2013
1:47 pm

“Okay, I give up. The point of this particular blog is what?”

Rubes gonna yawp.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

His response is as accurate as his translation of комиссар.

It doesn’t mean occupation.

комиссар: n. commissar, commissioner, government official

• Link
• Report this comment

Someone come do my dishes and quit whining about whatever it is you are whining about. That way I CAN continue to whine…….

• Link
• Report this comment

hey, in my plethora of banner ads, I see there’s a $10 discount
at the Creek casino this weekend. Do I get that? Or does that hurt me
in the long run? See how it works?

• Link
• Report this comment

<I.Corporations don’t “pay” taxes, they collect them from us and remit them to various governments

Why THAT explains why I pay soooooo much to be a member of Facebook. I hear tell that some are paying membership fees in the thousands.

• Link
• Report this comment

hahahaha…Libs complaining about a company who’s board and executives are admitted bleeding heart libs. Damn those evil Fox news watching republicans at Facebook……oohh wait.

• Link
• Report this comment

Me, you, Kam, Bro, and TBG

And if this were a Star Trek episode, who is going to be shot in the 1st 5 minutes?

• Link
• Report this comment

And if this were a Star Trek episode, who is going to be shot in the 1st 5 minutes?

It’s always the new guy

• Link
• Report this comment

TheDixieDove

February 15th, 2013
1:45 pm
.
.
Life is full of questions which don’t have perfect answers, but which we must make our best effort to deal with for society is to function. What is a ‘fair price’ for anything? In our free market the answer is ‘whatever the market will bear’, but we all agree that price gouging during a natural disaster should be prohibited and no one would want that to be the guideline for our government in setting fees for licenses (driving or marriage, or business) or penalties for crimes committed. None of these questions have perfect answers, but we all know they must be answered.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
.
We don’t have a free market…………….and “we” DO NOT agree that price gouging is wrong during a natural disaster…………………..and these questions DO have a perfect answer.
.
You do not have the right to force anyone else to do anything.
.
If you the think that the thugs of the State should force anyone to do anything then…………….you’re morally bankrupt.
Admit it………Know it…………you don’t have to live it.
It’s never too late to change.
Choose peace and non-agression.

• Link
• Report this comment

Monty is full.

• Link
• Report this comment

And if this were a Star Trek episode, who is going to be shot in the 1st 5 minutes?

Fred™ do not wear a red shirt or Bro will say
“He’s dead Kam.”

• Link
• Report this comment

I love you so many conservative posters in here, and elsewhere, just make #$%^ up.

• Link
• Report this comment

matt @ 1:12 pm nicely debunked Bookman. Well done.

• Link
• Report this comment

Fred: “His response is as accurate as his translation of комиссар. / It doesn’t mean occupation. ”

Yep, no translation required. Same word as used in English.

Liberal nightmare: “company who’s board and executives are admitted bleeding heart libs”

Well, Zuckerberg himself is of course carrying on a widely publicized political mating ritual with none other than Mr. Chris Christie. So I don’t know how “bleeding heart” that is.

• Link
• Report this comment

My bet is that before the outing is over, Kam will be kissing an illegal alien

• Link
• Report this comment

JAY

It ain’t exactly illegal and Facebook is simply doing what your hero, his cronies, and the GOP are letting them do…none of them have the nuts to do anything about it.

Singling out Facebook is like picking a needle in a haystack.

I presume you and all others on this forum take advantage of favorable tax treatment…

• Link
• Report this comment

@Class of 98 — Georgia would have a booming economy like North Dakota and Texas if we had oil and natural gas deposits to fuel a boom. Further Texas has about 13,000 defense contractors who received over $350 billion in government contracts over the last decade. As far as Florida is concerned, you might want to take a second look at their economy.

• Link
• Report this comment

Thanks Jay,

Now maybe you libs can see what cons mean when we say stop raising taxes. You libs can only do one thing, raise taxes. the fact is if you raise taxes Facebook still pays nothing.

Somehow ya ll can’t see that. Part of the con compromise was to close loop holes. Obama could not do that because he wanted to spend more than he wanted Facebook to pay.

This is really simple stuff, lower taxes and close loopholes. What would have been the tax revenue on Facebook if you libs had taken advantage of the power u currently have and resolved that issue rather than just trying to spend more ?

Obama could have closed all corporate loopholes when he had the entire government and 90% of the rank and file cons would have supported it. But no more lip service

• Link
• Report this comment

I presume you and all others on this forum take advantage of favorable tax treatment…

Why yes, I do.

And I can manage to put together what amounts to a few C-notes’ worth of political / advocacy donations in a typical given year in order, in hopes of steering an elected official or two a little closer to the path of righteousness. Multiplied times millions who think kinda-sorta like me, if we have our act half-together, we might manage to eke out a concession here or there.

Now, let’s compare that to the sort of influence that guys like Zuck have over the process.

If you think that makes a healthy representative republic, fine. I think it’s pretty sucktacular, myself.

• Link
• Report this comment

TheDixieDove

February 15th, 2013
1:45 pm

Took me 3 kleenex to clear my tears.

“into account how much government revenue is necessary to keep law and order and help the nation thrive through investments in infrastructure and modernization”.

Please define what law and order looks like. Do investments include entitlements?

“During the Great Depression we raised the upper tax rates on the most prosperous citizens to double or triple what they are today. That led to the USA having 45 years of unprecedented growth and prosperity”

The two do not correlated. The boom happened after WWII.

• Link
• Report this comment

I think of that phrase as the ‘Kamshaft

with a somewhat retarded offset…j/k Kam..it’s a hot rod reference

• Link
• Report this comment

@ America shrugged, no need to be obnoxious, I doubt they teach that in college, useful information anyway, try not to frame it with obnoxiousness…thanks.

@ fred, you are degenerating quickly today, don’t want to be blocked (we need the comic relief),easy, buddy….. watch the anger—–PUT DOWN THE GUN……

• Link
• Report this comment

lamar wants to drill baby drill on those asteroids.

• Link
• Report this comment

By the way Jay,

If one person paid a15% rate on their Facebook income, one time, they would pay more than 98% of one libs lifetime total tax contribution. So although I agree with the observation that Facebook benefitted from the loopholes that Obama has done nothing about, your attempt to act as if taxes were not paid on Facebook income is nothing but more propaganda.

Humm come to think of it, your entire argument assumes that Facebook is a person rather than a business. I mean you are saying Facebook didn’t pay taxes. How could it its not a person ? Why did you ignore the total taxes paid by the people who reaped the Facebook payout ?

By the way, is this loophole the same one that allowed Kerry to move his yacht to a state that didn’t tax it ?

• Link
• Report this comment

Why should corporations pay taxes! It’s not like they’re… people!

• Link
• Report this comment

Or go dick cheney

• Link
• Report this comment

But your irrelevant rants will only become relevant when your hero and his folks get with the other dopes and simplify the tax code.

ha ha ha. “Simplify the tax code.”

One born every minute, I guess.

• Link
• Report this comment

The internet is not free and someone is paying those taxes and those employees and keeping the sites maintained and they are passing those expenses on to us consumers

So Madmax, what are you paying as a Facebook membership fee? Think of the low low prices we could have if we just banned corporate advertising. We could also limit CEO salaries and get even lower prices.

• Link
• Report this comment

I wondered why my ears were burning

Just your ears?

• Link
• Report this comment

stands for decibels

February 15th, 2013
2:24 pm

Gee another in a daily series of vague, deflecting and irrelevant commentary. Good for you.

• Link
• Report this comment

Steve

February 15th, 2013
1:49 pm

WOW. I stand corrected and rebuked. :blush:

• Link
• Report this comment

Stevie: “The two do not correlated. The boom happened after WWII.”

The top tax brackets were vastly higher than now in the 1940s and 50s, so this includes the Eisenhower administration which never made so much as a peep about changing them. So this was obviously one of the periods of capitalism’s greatest expansions and growth.

It was only under the Democrat Kennedy (Johnson) that the gradual lowering of rates began which continues to today.

Today, with rates at historical lows, with growth feeble, with each ‘recovery’ to a downturn weaker than the last, and with investment in long-term growth-producers (infrastructure, education, technological transformation) at an ebb, the facts are very clear on the relationship between high rates of taxation of ultra high incomes and overall economic prosperity.

• Link
• Report this comment

It’s funny how liberals get all upset about people and corporations actually abiding by the tax code for their own benefit instead of joining the conservatives in their quest for a flat tax or a fair tax or some other tax structure than the garbage we have now. It’s as if everybody who makes more than they do must be vilified, but don’t ask them for another dime. In fact, send them a refund at everybody else’s expense.

Here’s a tip for you Jay. Facebook did not write the tax code. If they broke the law, fine, but whining because the dare to follow the tax code is pathetic. If you don’t like the tax code, aim your whining at the people in Washington who wrote the tax code and who now control it. And, NO, I don’t care what party they belong to.

• Link
• Report this comment

Alex – I understand these are fairly left slanting op ed pieces, but a real journalist would check the facts or have some intern check them for him. That’s so un-professional it merits my obnoxious tone!

• Link
• Report this comment

Stevie Ray

I’m not sure stands’ commentary on Facebook is any less relevant than your rants about NY Times this, NY Times that.

just saying

• Link
• Report this comment

(rolling my eyes)

• Link
• Report this comment

Keep Up the Good Fight!

February 15th, 2013
2:00 pm
Me, you, Kam, Bro, and TBG

And if this were a Star Trek episode, who is going to be shot in the 1st 5 minutes?

• Link
• Report this comment

RB – wanna know why we don’t like these ‘flat’ or ‘fair’ taxes? Because every non partisan study shows that they FAVOR THE WEALTHY AT THE EXPENSE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.

Do your homework.

• Link
• Report this comment

I’m for modifying the tax code, but not in this case. From a tax standpoint this is exactly like paying out cash bonuses except it defers the tax to the employees until the options are exercised. Corporations should not be taxed on income in the first place.

• Link
• Report this comment

mama,

So, you did not choose the deficit.

Got it.

• Link
• Report this comment

Well, I like this idea of getting rid of corporate income tax. That would whack 8% or so from federal revenues. Now we all know the godly Republicans ain’t going to set still for raising the tax on people to make up the difference. That leaves cutting spending as the only way to make up for the cut in revenue.

One way or another, the geezers and the other Takers will be taking it in the shorts. The rest of us might have to suffer a price reduction in what we buy from the corporations, but I’m willing to sacrifice for the good of the country.

• Link
• Report this comment

Whoops I left out the first paragraph that indicates this is taxed as general income.

When you exercise a NQSO, the spread between your exercise price and the market price — your profit — is generally taxed at ordinary income rates in that year’s tax return. (In unusual cases, where the options are traded in a securities market, the tax may accrue on the grant date.)
http://www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/taxes/taxes-on-nonqualified-stock-options-9304/

After you exercise the option, of course, you own the stock and your new tax basis is the market price on the exercise date. You now have a choice. If you hold the stock for more than a year after the exercise date, it appreciates, and if you sell, your gain is taxed as a capital gain. If it appreciates and you sell it before more than 12 months are up, it is taxed as regular income. In either case, if you sell for less than the market price on the exercise date, you have a loss that can offset other gains.
http://www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/taxes/taxes-on-nonqualified-stock-options-9304/

• Link
• Report this comment

Stevie, two things:

1. I’ve not “castigated” Boy Wonder-Zuck. I simply figured he might want to have a few more goons protecting him is all.

2, I will be the first to acknowledge that I am ASSuming stuff when I hear “simplify the tax code.” I could be wrong. I often am.

I will just make this all encompassing statement about taxes and conservatives.

Conservatives — the self-identifying ones who hold some kind of elective power, at least, as opposed to the poor schmucks out there who think they might get to drive the car one day — care about just one thing:

reducing their tax load. That is it. Nothing more or less.

If they think they can manage this by “simplifying” the code, swell. If they think they can sell people on some superduper VAT Scientologists Boortz & Linder called the FairTax, also great. If they are really smart and manage to get people to fork over future SS benefits due them in order to avert a “funding crisis” (Ha! ha! oh how they must bust a gut over port / cigars / hookers/ blow when they hear THAT howler! but I digress) and hang on to a really low marginal income tax rate + even lower capital gains tax rate, also good!

But what matters is keeping as much of what they have, as their lobbying / schmoozing dollars can manage. It’s not about the future health of the country and their fellow citizens. And that’s ok, really; I get that, I can even accept that maybe they’re NOT psychopaths, they don’t want to hurt individual Americans. They just don’t care enough about them to keep from pursuing that Prime Directive.

All clear now?

no? that’s ok, *I* sure feel better.

/soapbox

• Link
• Report this comment

These are the tax breaks Republican’s love, and then again hate when the poor and disabled are getting help.

Look at your power bill, and see how much money you are helping Southern company every month with their new Nuclear plant…. they get to gouge us and get a ton of free money from the government as well.

And when the plant is behind schedule as well…. which it is…… the 100% Republican board says that they can charge us the customer for the screw ups.

• Link
• Report this comment

Steve, “wanna know why we don’t like these ‘flat’ or ‘fair’ taxes?”

I already know why, Steve, and so does everybody else. It actually makes the 47% share in the operation of the government they want. You can whine about it “benefits the rich” all you want to, but if it’s a flat rate, it costs them the same percentage of their income as everybody else and there is nothing more fair than that. The botton line is YOU don’t want to pay your “fair share”. You want to whine and pay nothing.

• Link
• Report this comment

As a fat person I know that the reason I am fat is because I have to much food. Cutting my food intake would make me leaner and more productive but I could never argue that the reason I am fat is because I don’t have enough food.

Perhaps you are fat because you eat the WRONG foods mama says…… eat your weight in lettuce and vegetables, and you will get lean.

• Link
• Report this comment

Moderate Line

Pointed that out earlier

“Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story, unless you can’t think of anything better” said a recent ESPN columnist or maybe it was Twain-

highest and best use is travelin music- anyone go buy cocoa puffs for $1.99 because the are advertising on the side?

• Link
• Report this comment

That would make Kam the target…

Holy crap. I’m beginning to feel like Dick Cheney’s huntin’ buddy.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Stands, “bank wefare, think stimulus, thank Obama. If you agree or not with the stimulus, that’s on this adminstrations shoulders:read about it….”too big to fail”

• Link
• Report this comment

read about it….”too big to fail”

LTCM says, “What?”

• Link
• Report this comment

dB – Filed under “sh-t I wouldn’t continue reading if you paid me.”

dB, do you mind if I Biden that?

• Link
• Report this comment

Thomas

February 15th, 2013
2:58 pm
Moderate Line

Pointed that out earlier
+++++
Good job. I missed it.

• Link
• Report this comment

RB from Gwinnett: “instead of joining the conservatives in their quest for a flat tax or a fair tax ”

Under current conditions of wildly uneven income, flatness is the diametrical opposite of “fairness”.

You want a ‘fair tax’?

Start with getting fairness in income. Then we’ll talk about ‘flattening’ rates.

“Here’s a tip for you Jay. Facebook did not write the tax code.”

Yeah, and Zuckey boy has been cozying up to the neoliberal messiah Chris Christie because he wants a Twinkie munching buddy.

“If they broke the law, fine..”

It’s about the ability of cash gusher companies like Facebook to BUY the continuing favorable taxation laws, building on the cash advantages they’ve enjoyed cumulatively from past favorable tax laws.

It’s about oligarchic capture. Think about it, man.

• Link
• Report this comment

We are afraid of big business. The government, its citizens, is absolutely paralyzed in the presence of these entities. Thanks to the Supreme Court decision they run our government, bid it to the highest bidder for this end.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Texas has never executed an Eskimo, are they not people?”

They would’ve if they’d seen ‘un.

• Link
• Report this comment

The truth is, this is a much more complex issue than Jay makes it out to be. There is more information here for anyone who cares -
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/why-facebook-is-paying-the-tax-tab-on-employee-compensation/

I’m not an accountant and honestly I don’t understand the ins and outs. Of course I think Jay understands it even less than I do. Why let that hold him back from posting an opinion though.

I believe it was Jay that said “Ready, Fire, Aim” yesterday.

• Link
• Report this comment

Taxpayers then cough up an additional $429 million paid to Facebook…

Corporations uber Alles.

But apparently Republicans love that coughing up part!

• Link
• Report this comment

Well, that loophole come from the sainted Warren Buffet’s insistance that options get taxed. Buffet is Obama’s primary economic advisor.

• Link
• Report this comment

And, needless to say, Republican politicians will receive a generous campaign contribution.

• Link
• Report this comment

If Obama was going to ram legislation down our throat with a Democratic Congress, why didn’t he address these ‘tax fairness’ issues which would have produced a lot more for him to spend on his agenda than Obamacare?
Liberals make out like this is all Repubs fault but Dems never do anything about it themselves. Hypocrite some more.

• Link
• Report this comment

…to ram legislation down our throat…

I have found that those who complain the most about having something rammed down their throats are the same ones who will swallow anything.

• Link
• Report this comment

The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That’s the only difference. ~Ralph Nader

• Link
• Report this comment

alittlecommonsense Jay is just pointing it out to us, would know they had not paid taxes unless he had told us. Would have said Facebook can park in the VIP parking lot because they paid for it. As it is we paid for it and they are parking in our space. As you said you don’t understand it but you still are convinced Jay’s facts are wrong which I will take that bet on Jay being right, usual is even if it is not what you want to hear.

• Link
• Report this comment

I just realized I can’t be shocked anymore. Appalled, yes.

• Link
• Report this comment

Who are the good rich folks and who are the bad ones? Which are the good businesses and which are the bad?

• Link
• Report this comment

Bennett said she was trying to get the child to stop crying, but he continued. “According to Ms. Bennett, a male passenger next to her in Row 28, Seat A, later identified as Joe Rickey Handley, told her to shut that” [racial slur] “baby up. Ms. Bennett stated that Joe Rickey Handley then turned around and slapped [JS] in the face with an open hand, which caused the juvenile victim to scream even louder.” http://www.ajc.com/news/news/fbi-man-slapped-crying-2-year-old-on-delta-flight/nWQQz

So now CEOs are slapping babies?

• Link
• Report this comment

Liberal – 4:07

If the best you can do is a “so’s your old man” defence, that’s pretty pathetic.

• Link
• Report this comment

Who supports the flat/fair taxes? Follow the money – the WEALTHY. We’re not that stupid, RB. Progressive taxation is fair and it works. I’m so sick of the greedy/wealthy whining about their taxes when they don’t pay anything anyhow via lower rates than most of us in the middle class.

• Link
• Report this comment

CEO’s getting drunk, spouting racial slurs, AND slapping babies.

• Link
• Report this comment

….how’s that Obama Kool-Aid you love so much

Seeing as I have never cast a single vote for him, I gotta ask — and what Kool-Aid is that, sport?

• Link
• Report this comment

That Kool Aid that makes you defend him and his policies….sport.

• Link
• Report this comment

Speaking of swallowing….how’s that Obama Kool-Aid you love so much

My 401k is loving it.

• Link
• Report this comment

That Kool Aid that makes you defend him and his policies….sport.

The smoking gun is the mushroom cloud.

We will be greeted as liberators.

• Link
• Report this comment

Just heard this one on the radio:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfblUSCaAQk

• Link
• Report this comment

And it has nothing to do with a single Obama policy but thanks for playing

Maybe not. All I know is im 40 and when a Republican is in the White House ive lost money.

When its A Democrat im making it.

That is good enough for me.

Republicans like to distribute wealth. Upward.

Then we are told to wait for the trickle. It never does.

• Link
• Report this comment

But con stupidity never varies.

It can be counted on that’s for sure.

Good News is most conservatives are very old. One foot in grave.

They wont be around much longer.

• Link
• Report this comment

Maybe you should allocate your 401K better when Repubs are in office. Just sayin….

• Link
• Report this comment

Dislike

• Link
• Report this comment

“I am trying to tell u libs that spending or giving away more than you have is why we have a debt.

Why is that hard to understand”

Where were you and your ilks with all this sage wisdom and knowledge in 2001 when the decline began?

Oh… that’s right… you all were standing by, screaming HARDER… FASTER…

• Link
• Report this comment

I agree this is nuts.

Now, what about my neighbor who not only doesn’t pay income tax but gets money back? Can we stop that, too?

• Link
• Report this comment

Madmax is paying a fortune in Facebook membership fees

• Link
• Report this comment

I WANT FNM…!!!

Otherwise, I might tell y’all what I think about the Hagel thingie…heh, heh.

• Link
• Report this comment

Based on this thread, here’s my FNM offering…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCkOmcIl79s

• Link
• Report this comment

Now, what about my neighbor who not only doesn’t pay income tax but gets money back? Can we stop that, too?

I have no idea what neighborhood you live in, but are you talking about the 18,000 American households who made over $500,000 last year and paid nothing in taxes?

Or maybe you are referring to the 485,000 American households who made between $100,000 and $500,000 and did the same?

• Link
• Report this comment

Keep – are you over 16?

Jam – I agree with you that capitalism has been somewhat perverted but there is nothing insane in the statement. It is pretty much truth. And most of the perversion has been caused by the tax code.

Rightwing – Facebook doesn’t have employees? The exec’s who got the bonuses don’t pay taxes? you would rather pass on the taxes as a flat tax over a perceived issue of fairness/justice?

• Link
• Report this comment

Remove head from rear and understanding will be thine by deep blue friend.

• Link
• Report this comment

Excuse me: “Sometimes”

• Link
• Report this comment

“Taxpayers then cough up an additional $429 million paid to Facebook” Having worked on my taxes all day I do not consider think that taxpayers will cough up an additional money when I get my tax refund. In Facebook’s example it’s a REFUND of overpayment of taxes paid by Facebook. Unlike the earned income tax refund or what ever they are calling it now its not a government funded hand out.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ GT, Jay is an OPINION writer and should be expected to give a liberal opinion,this is not a fact-laden blog, You believe Jay before you even read what he says becaused you have a far left liberal bias like him. That does not make him correct, it simply confirms your bias and you think he’s right because he says what you already think, which you cannot question or you would become uncomfortable, something you are not prepared to do, evidenced your strong bias. We all do it to some degree, you much more so than anyone except mabye Jam amd Fred.

@ Corbin, if you invested in homes, you DID screw up, recent economist article points to the falsehood of thinking that housing prices generally go significantly up over time, I believe they quote over many years a 0.6% increase which will not keep up with inflation. I kept all mine in equities and am now up 20% ov 2009, of course that could all change on monday……

• Link
• Report this comment

Well Max, if as Mr. Romney says, corporations are people, then they damn well should pay their share to Uncle Sam, right?

For living in the greatest country on earth and enjoying the bounty provided by it?

So, they are people entitle to the rights of people but are exempt from paying the taxes that people pay?

Somebody seems exceptionally confused…

• Link
• Report this comment

If you can’t beat him join him.

• Link
• Report this comment

Like I said Keep, are you over 16? How do you think FB sets their advertising rates? You don’t believe that they build that tax into them? And you don’t think that those advertisers pass on the cost of that to their consumers? Eventually, someone buys a coke or whatever product was advertised and all that “free” stuff including those advertising fees that were paid to facebook which includes the recovery of those taxes they incur are passed on to the consumer as part of the price of that coke. That my friend is a flat tax.

• Link
• Report this comment

Just say NO, the country will be better off

• Link
• Report this comment

And madmax, being a brilliant support of the idiot flat tax, you ignore competition and everything else that goes into establishing the price of a product. But I am sure since you have indicated that Facebook includes recovery of taxes in their advertising pricing and they are not paying any taxes, advertisers will be getting a big rebate to pass on the consumers, right?

• Link
• Report this comment

Jamvet – so sorry you are so confused. Where exactly will a company get this money you want to tax? They can’t print it so where does it come form.

• Link
• Report this comment

Where are all the CONS today? Are they huddled up their bunkers and safe rooms clutching their ARs and guns since that asteroid is getting close?

Or did asteroid not make Wayne LaPierre’s list of gun-toting disasters?

• Link
• Report this comment

Guess I’ll post on topic, even though I should have done that first….

F**K FACEBOOK!!! I refuse to give them a smidget of information on me so they can sell my info to someone else and profit. They don’t produce anything tangible, and they f**k people’s lives up who get tangled in that sh*t. If I had to use Facebook to post here, there’d be one less brother on the board.

• Link
• Report this comment

Keep – I am not a supporter of the flat tax – I am asking how you can rail against the flat tax and then turn around and ask for the tax code to impose a hidden flax tax? It seems contradictory to me. All you’ve done is throw juvenile snipes and jabs and haven’t answered the question.

• Link
• Report this comment

Corbin Sharpe.
I think, therefore I am..
I think. @ 11:23 am :

“0311/8541/5811/1811/1801

You have to go back to 1964 to prove your point? Scout, you are sad.”

Yep …………. just like Supreme Court decisions go back way over a 100 years.

It’s called “PRECEDENT” !

Look it up !

• Link
• Report this comment

Max, read and learn.

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that only persons should be taxed. There are also no moral reasons to avoid taxing corporations. On the contrary, as a matter of fairness it would be appropriate to tax any entity which gains a benefit from the United States government. Corporations benefit greatly from the governmental system in the United States.

If the federal budget is to be balanced some group of people or some “thing” in America is going to have to feel the pain of spending cuts or tax raises. The spending cuts being passed right now affect mostly the poor and middle-class. Progressives ask whether it is really just to exempt some of the most profitable corporations on earth while simultaneously asking the most vulnerable in America to take on the burden.</i?

• Link
• Report this comment

Keep – try to focus – here comes the question ” I am asking how you can rail against the flat tax and then turn around and ask for the tax code to impose a hidden flax tax?”

• Link
• Report this comment

Bro, maybe you want to go fishing?

If it’s with Carnival….. Nahhh….

• Link
• Report this comment

A flax tax — more fiber?

Again, Madmax, your “hidden flat tax” is where? Tell me about that advertising rebate.

• Link
• Report this comment

For all of you old Obama liberals, I hope you are proud

We are. Everything else you wrote pure nonsense.

Michelle Obama is a lot hotter than most first ladies.

Ill bet she would kick your a** too.

• Link
• Report this comment

Bro

He just wants you to bring the dynamite

• Link
• Report this comment

Get ready libs. ………. your women are going in the next big one (or to Canada ………… )

“Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) on Friday said he plans to introduce legislation that would bring back the military draft and extend it to women for the first time.

Rangel, who has pushed for years to bring back the draft, said the Pentagon’s decision to allow women to serve in combat means that they too should register for the Selective Service.”

Read more: http://thehill.com/video/house/283387-rangel-to-introduce-legislation-to-reinstating-the-draft-#ixzz2L0dY0MkR

• Link
• Report this comment

Fred, you took a shot at me this afternoon just before 2:00 p.m. about Ireland and low taxes and I asked for you to enlighten me. I had to earn a living in the meantime. Since you came back into the thread about a half hour later talking about a shooting expedition, I assume you aren’t going to respond. If low corporate taxes over there really did lead to it having financial problems, rather than the obvious cause, the world wide recession, I’d really like to hear the facts. And Fred says…..

• Link
• Report this comment

Brosephus:

Thanks for your “rant” reply.

• Link
• Report this comment

Bro…. is that the one with the punch line: “they aren’t falling for that take a cruise line again?”

• Link
• Report this comment

For pogo

http://www.alternet.org/9-interesting-things-you-may-not-know-about-clitoris

Educate yourself about what you’re doing wrong, and maybe you wont hate the wimmens

• Link
• Report this comment

JamVet at 5:12 p.m.,

“Corporations benefit greatly from the governmental system in the United States.”

I didn’t go back and read the exchange this was a part of; but, I would make the point that corporations are fiction, no matter what the current Supreme Court says. I’d agree that their owners and employees benefit from our government; but, the entity? It’s a piece of paper in a government office or a series of bits in a government computer.

• Link
• Report this comment

Thanks for your “rant” reply.

If that was a “rant”, then I have major improvement to make to reach the gold medal level of yours.

—————–

Keep

Yep!!! Or it’s something along that line of thought.

• Link
• Report this comment

Tne business worl d of the Repubs and Mitt Romney in full display- thanks Jay!

• Link
• Report this comment

“…Facebook, which because of its generosity to its own executives won’t be paying state or federal corporate income taxes for years to come.”

Well Jay Congress and no one else writes the federal tax laws and the Dems are the majority (at least in the Senate) at the moment so let’s see if the Facebook loophole gets closed. I’d be willing to bet a substantial sum that it won’t happen.

• Link
• Report this comment

I am guessing Zuckerberg didn’t vote for Romney. Free pass from his (D) buddies.

Only Republicans are “evil rich”…

• Link
• Report this comment

Geez, Jay, Zuckerberg hosted a fundraiser for Chris Christie, get over it.

• Link
• Report this comment

This is a favored group of the democrats. No need for a true believer such as yourself to act surprised, Jay.

• Link
• Report this comment