Despite Getting Billions From the Government, Elon Musk’s SpaceX Pays Basically No Taxes

"Billionaire freeloaders don’t pay taxes."

Launch and Taxes

For all his trash-talk of government welfare, billionaire Elon Musk has benefited from a lot of it in his time at the helm of his businesses, including SpaceX — and according to newly leaked documents, his space firm isn't even paying any taxes, either.

As the New York Times reports, internal documents show that Musk has intimated to investors that the company may never have to pay income tax — and as the leaked documents suggest, it likely hasn't had to for years.

Those documents indicate, for the first time, just how cushy a tax deal SpaceX has gotten. Specifically, the spaceflight company and NASA contractor can use a tax benefit that allows it to offset future taxable income due to the $5 billion in debt it racked up prior to 2021 — and can do so indefinitely, thanks to a 2017 rule change implemented during Donald Trump's first presidency.

In one such document, SpaceX executives told their investor counterparts that it was "more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized" — a common talking point for companies suffering from frequent losses, according to Robert Willens, an accounting analyst who spoke to the NYT.

Billionaire Freeloaders

If that weren't egregious enough, SpaceX also boasts at least $227 million in carryovers that could potentially offset state taxes, and another $1.1 billion in federal and state tax credits to boot.

According to tax experts who spoke to the NYT, that $5 billion indefinite tax break is both noteworthy and substantial, especially because SpaceX relies so much on its government contracts.