> I may be using the incorrect term. Regardless, they're happy to claim it as an expense as far as taxation goes
That's how business expenses work. Tax revenue goes down as a percentage of the expense.
How else would you want it to work?
And for 30% tax rate, for every $30 in reduced taxes facebook is paying $100, so they still lose $70.
And all else equal that money becomes profit for the news companies so the taxes still get paid.
> but given they pay no tax to begin with, the "cost of doing business complying with the regulation" is effectively passed on to the tax payer
If they pay no tax even before this law, then what's the problem? If they go from $0 to $0 then the tax payer isn't losing out on anything. And in that situation, even a single dollar of news company profit means a reduction in tax payer burden.
