Fox News' Payout Actually Comes With A Hefty Tax Write-Off

Fox News’s $787.5 million payout to settle wide-ranging defamation claims by Dominion Voting Systems is still the talk of the media world, including the size of that sum.

But more evidence suggests that the eye-popping number — which Dominion and its owner still claim as a win — might not be as costly to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire as it might seem, according to Andrew Ross Sorkin at the NY Times. Fox’s stock has barely budged since the deal was announced on Tuesday.

Fox can take a tax deduction from the settlement, Lever News reports. U.S. tax law allows companies to write off at least some portion of settlement fees as part of the cost of doing business. (There are some exceptions, including for cases involving accusations of sexual harassment or abuse with nondisclosure agreements; Fox News has paid out settlements involving those in the past.)

It is unclear how much Fox will save, though a spokesman confirmed that tax deductibility is at play. Lever News estimated that the company could reap as much as $213 million in tax savings.

That’s likely to further infuriate Fox critics, who already thought that Murdoch and his company got off better than expected. DealBook questioned yesterday whether much will change at Fox News post-settlement, given that the network won’t have to make an on-air apology or suffer potentially embarrassing public testimony by Murdoch or stars like Tucker Carlson.