Since its foundation in 2002, Elon Musk SpaceX has become the main force in commercial space flight and a key launch provider for the American government. A recent survey suggests that its domination can discover – at least in part – two decades of federal tax evasion.
The company’s internal documents examined exclusively by the New York Times show that SpaceX can use net operating loss reports (NOL), an American tax provision which allows companies to use past losses to compensate for future taxable income. The documents indicate that SpaceX had accumulated nearly $ 5.4 billion in tax losses by the end of 2021, which allows it to avoid federal taxes on $ 5.4 billion in future revenues. The advantage is available for all companies and, in 2017, President Trump eliminated his expiration date. According to Times, this means that SpaceX can apply nearly $ 3 billion in losses against future taxable income as long as it wishes.
Gizmodo contacted SpaceX to comment but did not receive an answer at the time of publication.
In June, Musk went to X – his own social media platform – to declare that SpaceX’s revenues will exceed the entire NASA budget next year, ending at $ 15.5 billion. The company’s turnover of the company was estimated at $ 13.1 billion, compared to $ 8.7 billion in 2023, reports the payload.
SpaceX is one of the many technological companies of several billion dollars that have propelled musk on the world scene and made him the richest man in the world. Their growth largely depends on federal funding.
In February, an analysis of the Washington Post revealed that Musk and its companies received at least $ 38 billion in contracts, loans, grants and public tax credits over the past 20 years. 52 Other contracts underway in seven government agencies, including NASA, the Ministry of Defense and the General Services Administration, could pay Musk companies at an additional $ 11.8 billion in the coming years, Wapo reported.
Most of these contracts are between SpaceX and NASA or DOD. The documents examined by the New York Times indicated that almost 84% of SpaceX revenues in 2020 and 76% of its 2021 income came from federal contracts.
Tax experts told Times to avoid more than $ 5 billion in federal income taxes was substantial for a company that is so strongly based on government contracts. The documents suggest that SpaceX has paid a certain income tax to foreign governments and states since 2002, but probably not in the United States government, according to Times.
The alleged capacity of SpaceX to protect billions of future profits from IRS presents a disturbing paradox: a company which owes a large part of its growth to federal funding can restore relatively little to public chests. It does not seem that this unilateral relationship will end soon, because SpaceX has become an integral part of the American space economy and national defense.
