据《纽约时报》周三报道，Meta公司向美国国税局（IRS）表示，其人工智能数据中心是一项可能会失败的实验。这使得Meta能够为其购买的人工智能芯片申请研发税收抵免。去年，这项抵免政策使其税单减少了近40亿美元。
Meta tells the IRS that its AI data centres are an experiment that could fail, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. That lets Meta claim a research tax credit on the AI chips it buys. The credit cut almost $4bn off its tax bill last year.
卡什米尔·希尔（Kashmir Hill）、杰西·德鲁克（Jesse Drucker）、伊莱·坦（Eli Tan）和迈克·艾萨克（Mike Isaac）为《纽约时报》报道了这则新闻。他们援引了四位了解Meta运营情况的知情人士的消息，并查阅了证券备案文件。此前没有任何媒体报道过Meta将该抵免政策用于数据中心。
Kashmir Hill, Jesse Drucker, Eli Tan and Mike Isaac reported the story for The New York Times. They cited four people with knowledge of Meta’s operations and a review of securities filings. No outlet had reported Meta’s use of the credit for data centres before.
马克·扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg）曾对投资者表示：“我们在人工智能领域的投资正在加速我们核心业务的每一个主要部分。”将数据中心视为“试点模型”据《纽约时报》报道，出于税务目的，Meta将其数据中心归类为“试点模型”。始于1981年的研发与实验税收抵免政策规定，企业可就实验中使用的耗材获得退税，但标准的商业运营不符合条件。Meta正为其从英伟达（Nvidia）等公司购买的芯片申请该项抵免。
“Our investments in A.I. are accelerating every major part of our core business,” Mark Zuckerberg has told investors. Data centres as ‘pilot models’For tax purposes, Meta classifies its data centres as “pilot models”, according to the Times. The research and experimentation tax credit, created in 1981, gives companies a rebate for supplies used in an experiment. Standard business operations do not qualify. Meta is claiming the credit for the chips it buys from companies including Nvidia.
据《纽约时报》报道，Meta于两年前开始为其数据中心申请该项抵免。两名知情人士称，该公司对运往人工智能数据中心的芯片和运往标准数据中心的芯片进行了不同的标记。其中一人表示，公司财务部门内部有人质疑这种做法能否通过美国国税局的审查。
Meta began claiming the credit for its data centres two years ago, according to the Times. It labels chips bound for AI data centres differently from those sent to standard data centres, two people said. Some in its finance department questioned whether the approach would pass the IRS, one person said.
备案文件显示，该抵免政策使Meta在2024年的税款减少了20亿美元，在2025年减少了39亿美元。2023年的抵免额为7亿美元。《纽约时报》发现，Meta目前是上市公司中该项抵免政策的最大受益者。其审计机构安永（EY）批准了该方案，并此后向其他公司推介了这种做法。
The credit cut Meta’s taxes by $2bn in 2024 and $3.9bn in 2025, filings show. In 2023, it was $700m. Meta is now the biggest beneficiary of the credit among publicly traded companies, the Times found. Its auditor, EY, signed off on the plan and has since pitched the approach to other companies.
Meta自身的风险预警：Meta为美国国税局可能提出质疑的税务状况预留了资金。该储备金在两年内增长了45%，从129亿美元增至187.4亿美元。Meta列出的首要因素就是其研发税收抵免的不确定性。苹果、亚马逊、Alphabet和微软每年的研发抵免额也超过10亿美元。据《纽约时报》报道，这些公司均未将该抵免政策列为风险因素。
Meta’s own risk warning Meta sets money aside for tax positions the IRS could challenge. That reserve rose 45% in two years, to $18.74bn from $12.9bn. The first factor Meta lists is uncertainty over its research tax credits. Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft also report research credits above $1bn a year. None has flagged the credit as a risk, according to the Times.
“Meta正在申请数十亿美元的税收优惠，而其自身的会计师却告诉投资者这些优惠面临被美国国税局（I.R.S.）推翻的风险，”前安永税务顾问Lisa De Simone表示。
“Meta is claiming billions of dollars in tax benefits that its own accountants are telling investors are at risk of being overturned by the I.R.S.,” said Lisa De Simone, a former EY tax adviser.
Meta拒绝透露其数据中心为何具有实验性质。Meta发言人Andy Stone表示，公司在过去五年已投资2000亿美元用于研发。
Meta declined to say what made its data centres experimental. Andy Stone, a Meta spokesman, said the company had invested $200bn in research and development over five years.
“与其他进行此等规模投资的公司一样，我们利用的是国会几十年前设立的税收激励措施，”Stone说。“远远超出”James Shannon于1981年作为众议员发起了这项抵免额。他告诉《时报》，该措施旨在用于“人力、知识、信息”。
“Like other companies that invest at this scale, we use the tax incentives Congress established decades ago,” Stone said. ‘Way, way beyond’James Shannon sponsored the credit as a congressman in 1981. He told the Times it was meant for “people power, knowledge, information”.
“这已经远远超出了任何人能够想象的范围，”Shannon说。
“This has gone way, way beyond what anybody could have imagined,” Shannon said.
联合税务委员会预计，该抵免额将在2025年给政府造成321亿美元的成本。仅Meta一家就将占其中的十分之一以上。Meta还在就3.55亿美元的节税额与国税局对簿公堂。该公司曾将扎克伯格2013年的股票期权视为研发费用处理。
The Joint Committee on Taxation projected the credit would cost the government $32.1bn in 2025. Meta alone would account for more than a tenth of that. Meta is also fighting the IRS over $355m in savings. It had treated Zuckerberg’s 2013 stock options as a research expense.
本月，Meta发布了其Muse AI智能体，该应用成为iPhone和Android平台上下载量最大的应用。周二，Meta签署了一项在东南亚的AI算力协议。同一天，扎克伯格的AI安全协议在白宫签署。
This month, Meta released its Muse AI agent, which became the most downloaded app on iPhone and Android. On Tuesday, Meta signed a deal for AI computing capacity in Southeast Asia. The same day, Zuckerberg’s AI safety accord was signed at the White House.