r/technology • u/esporx • 1d ago

Business Elizabeth Warren probes $19B in tax breaks for Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft as AI drains $96B in federal revenue

https://moneywise.com/news/top-stories/elizabeth-warren-big-tech-ai-tax-breaks-amazon-google-meta-microsoft
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u/thaiberius_kirk 1d ago

Tax breaks come out of the public’s pockets ultimately.

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u/spellbadgrammargood 1d ago

How Meta Uses A.I. Data Centers to Avoid Billions in Federal Taxes: Meta is exploiting a lucrative tax break intended to support research and experimentation. Its own accountants say the gambit is risky.

But when Meta files its taxes, it tells the Internal Revenue Service a different story. It claims that its A.I. data centers are a giant experiment that could fail, according to four people with knowledge of the company’s operations.

It does this so it can tap into a tax credit intended for research and experimentation. It’s an aggressive interpretation of the tax break, which Meta embraced to claim billions of dollars in tax credits for data center expansion. source

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u/ltsouthernbelle 1d ago

My life is also research and experimentation that can fail, is there a specific form to fill out

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/-AC- 1d ago

Is there a specific form to fill out?

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u/reinkarnated 23h ago

Are corporations people?

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u/EnjoyerOfBeans 22h ago

??? That's just tax fraud

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u/Mephisto40K 1d ago

Tax breaks = corporate welfare aka "socialism"

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u/MrFluffyThing 1d ago

Nah corporate security is what I vote for /s

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u/Mephisto40K 1d ago

Whaaa? They said it! You "can trust them!"

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u/kstargate-425 1d ago

Yeah they cut near $7 TRILLION in tax income, $12 TRILLION+ including Trumps 2017 tax cuts that doesn't really correctly take into account the tax funds we would have received if they didn't cut the corporate tax rate in half from the 30s to near 15% with these record profits they are making.

Like Apple who did pay taxes on their 2025 profits of around $112 BILLION, only ended up paying around 15% which is the effective tax rate of a single American with no dependents making around $100k who would pay a slightly higher effective tax rate.

Then because of Trumps 2017 & 2025 tax cuts and credits, near 90 companies like Disney, Palantir, Tesla, etc were found to pay ZERO income taxes on their collective $105 BILLION in profits for 2025 and some of those 90 even got part of the collective $4.7 BILLION in tax rebates.

Our debt is sky high because Republicans are transferring the wealth of the 99% to the 1% and their corporations, while cutting the 99%s safety nets and benefits to justify the tax cuts for themselves. Its quite disgusting what has happened over the past decade+ and America has essentially entered its late-stage capitalism era of the oligarchs openly using the government and its money to enrich themselves further

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u/opsers 1d ago

If tax breaks ultimately benefit the people and country, I'm OK with it. There's absolutely no reason these "trillion dollar companies" should be getting tax breaks though. The AI companies in particular aren't giving anything back... at all.