An $8 billion Treasury break helped bring Meta’s tax rate to 2%. Now it has a week to answer senators about data center tax credits

Meta’s filings this week were dominated by its new class of nonvoting stock, which would let Mark Zuckerberg raise cash, including enough to pay for a potential California wealth tax, without giving up control of the company. Meta says it needs the new shares to fund its AI ambitions: Management’s forecasts “showed the Company’s need to raise hundreds of billions of dollars over a period of several years beginning as early as fall 2026,” according to its information statement.

While that news pertains to an individual’s potential tax bill, Meta’s quarterly report shows just how low the company’s tax bill might be.

“Our effective tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2026 was 2%,” Meta said in the report, as compared with 21%, the statutory rate set into federal law. The company reported income before taxes of $53.5 billion for those nine months and a tax provision of $1.03 billion. By comparison, absent changes to its tax landscape, Meta says, “We expect our fourth-quarter 2026 tax rate to be between 15%–17%.”

Most of that comes from a single item: On Feb. 18, Treasury issued Notice 2026-7, providing relief from the corporate alternative minimum tax related to previously capitalized U.S. research and development costs. Meta recognized an $8.03 billion tax benefit in the first quarter as a result, partially offsetting........

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