Re: Signature needed: Our tax money cannot subsidize Fox's lying

Friend, it's absurd, but [legal experts agree](. Fox paid $787 million to settle a lawsuit for lying about the 2020 election—and now, it can write it off as a tax break. [Sign if you agree: Our taxpayer money should not subsidize Fox's lying](. [Sign the petition]( As a cost of doing business, Fox can write off about $200 million from next year's taxes. "But the American public has every reason to be mad," said Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. "We ought to make a distinction in the tax law between regular and irregular business expenses." One member of Congress [plans to introduce a bill]( in response. We don't know the details yet, but the law already provides some exceptions to the rule. If you get sued for sexual harassment, you can't write off the settlement money. And if the Environmental Protection Agency fines a factory for polluting, they don't get to turn around and write it off. Congress needs to find a solution now, before Fox gets away with lying again. [Sign the petition: Fox should not get a tax write-off for settling the defamation case.]( [Sign the petition]( Keep fighting, Paul Hogarth, Daily Kos P.S. Below is an email that we sent you earlier in the week. --------------------------------------------------------------- Friend, we all cheered when Fox paid $878 million to settle a defamation claim. But now, we know they will likely get a $200 million tax break out of it. [Sign the petition: Fox cannot get a tax write-off for lying. Our tax money should not be subsidizing their dishonest business.]( [Sign the petition]( You don't just "settle" a defamation claim for $878 million, unless you were probably lying. And that's what Fox News did. But as lawyers [have confirmed](, the fact that Fox settled the claim with a hefty sum means they can now write it off as a "cost of doing business." There are some exceptions to this rule. A defendant who settles a sexual harassment lawsuit cannot write off their claims, nor can a defendant who paid government fines get a tax break. But settling a defamation lawsuit against a private party? Unfortunately, Fox probably can get a tax break for that. NYU tax law professor Daniel Shaviro [explained it this way](: “If your business model is to tell lies so that you’ll get viewers and have lots of advertising revenues, then, odious though this business model may be, the tax system’s job is to tax you on the profits that you actually make from it. And those profits are indeed reduced when you are successfully sued by the victims of your malicious falsehoods.” That's absurd. Experts say that Fox can now get a $200 million tax break. If exceptions already exist for sexual harassment and government fines, why not for what Fox did? [Sign if you agree: Fox should not be getting a tax break for lying.]( [Sign the petition]( Keep fighting, Paul Hogarth, Daily Kos Daily Kos needs you now more than ever We are falling behind our projections for two of our three major revenue streams: advertising and list building. This means that at this moment, we need to rely more and more on donations from the Daily Kos community to make ends meet. Can you chip in $5 right now to help Daily Kos keep fighting? [Donate $5]( If you wish to donate by mail instead, please send a check to Daily Kos, PO Box 70036, Oakland, CA, 94612. Contributions to Daily Kos are not tax deductible. Sent via [ActionNetwork.org](. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Daily Kos, please [click here](.