The federal deficit—the amount by which the government's total budget outlays exceeds its total receipts for a fiscal year—is estimated at $680 billion for fiscal year 2013. The federal debt—the sum total of our deficits over the years—is sitting at about $17 trillion.
Meanwhile, some of Silicon Valley's richest and best-known companies are avoiding income taxes by taking deductions related to stock options used to compensate executives. Twitter, which went public on Thursday, is one of them.
Last April we detailed how tech companies park cash overseas to avoid taxes, and now a new report from the Center for Tax Justice shows that a dozen emerging tech companies have stockpiled enough unused stock option tax credits to avoid paying income taxes on the next $11.4 billion of U.S income they (collectively) earn.
This means that Uncle Sam will miss out on a combined $4 billion in tax revenue from these 12 companies, which also include Facebook, LinkedIn, and Priceline.
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