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Matthew Gardner

@mindthegaap.bsky.social
623 followers 166 following 1.1K posts

I work with the fine folks at @itep.org. State/fed tax policy, corporate tax, financial accounting, reverse engineering the perfect mapo tofu, go Washington Spirit. Glass half empty but trying to fill it.

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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Couldn't have happened to a nicer police officer clothing retailer. Sadly, this doesn't mean the litigation is dead. And until we have a Treasury Department that believes corruption is real, the CTA won't get enforced domestically anyway.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The invaluable @justinwolfers.bsky.social gives the skinny on the new jobs report, which includes a revision of July's already-released numbers. Nonfarm employment actually FELL in July. open.substack.com/pub/platypus...
open.substack.com
Technically, We're Fine
September brought just 29,000 new jobs and two months of downward revisions. But unemployment barely budged. That tells us something important about how the economy has changed
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
UTB's are tax breaks that companies claim on their tax forms. They are 100% real. But for financial accounting purposes, companies can claim they don't exist. That 3.6% tax rate we calculated based on Meta's 10-K assumes they don't get away with even a dime of these $2.8 B in UTB's.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
And $2.8 B is the amount of tax breaks Meta claimed last year that the company believes would likely get disallowed on audit. That 3.6% tax rate sounds pretty low. But if those $2.8 billion of "uncertain tax benefits" or UTB's aren't disallowed, Meta's real tax rate for 2025 could be zero .
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
3.6% is the effective federal income tax rate my org has estimated Meta paid in 2025. They booked $79 billion of profits in the US. By paying 3.6% instead of the 21% the law prescribes, they saved $13.7 billion in taxes. The R&D credit alone was $3.9 billion of that. itep.org/meta-tax-bre...
itep.org
Meta’s Federal Tax Rate Hits an All-Time Low Due to Breaks Expanded by Trump Tax Law
The company paid an effective federal income tax rate of just over 3.5% in 2025, the lowest it has recorded since the company went public as Facebook in 2012.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Good stuff from @kashhill.bsky.social on Meta's continued enthusiasm for living in the grey areas of the tax law. The company appear to be claiming the R&D credit for supplies purchased for use in its data center spending. Two numbers worth front-loading for this: $2.8 billion and 3.6%.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
3.6% is the effective federal income tax rate my org has estimated Meta paid in 2025. They booked $79 billion of profits in the US. By paying 3.6% instead of the 21% the law prescribes, they saved $13.7 billion in taxes. The R&D credit alone was $3.9 billion of that. itep.org/meta-tax-bre...
itep.org
Meta’s Federal Tax Rate Hits an All-Time Low Due to Breaks Expanded by Trump Tax Law
The company paid an effective federal income tax rate of just over 3.5% in 2025, the lowest it has recorded since the company went public as Facebook in 2012.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This shouldn't stop u from appreciating your resin-based Christmas typewriter decor (keys not functional). It'll look nice on your desk, tariffs be damned. And it's not just a fake typewriter-- it's a symbol of a gigantic wealth transfer from consumers to CEOs. shop.crackerbarrel.com/home-furnitu...
shop.crackerbarrel.com
Resin Christmas Typewriter Decor
Find product details, reviews, and more for our Resin Christmas Typewriter Decor at shop.crackerbarrel.com. Free shipping over 150
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The same applies to Apple computers, Nike shoes, all kinds of electronics sold on Amazon, Ford and GM cars. If you bought these things in the last year, you paid some tariffs. You'll never know how much and you're not getting a check in the mail now that the tariffs are being refunded.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
These earthenware-and-dolomite salt shakers seem like a bargain at $9.99, but if they're as imported as they seem, they might be half that already-low price if it weren't tariffs already collected. We'll never know because Cracker Barrel execs aren't telling us.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Tariffs are a tax. It's not controversial to say they are generally a tax on American consumers, and an invisible one. Take Cracker Barrel's currently-available salt and pepper set in the form of elves sitting on donuts (please!). Are they tariffed? Can't say. shop.crackerbarrel.com/home-furnitu...
shop.crackerbarrel.com
Elves on Donuts Salt and Pepper Set
Find product details, reviews, and more for our Elves on Donuts Salt and Pepper Set at shop.crackerbarrel.com. Free shipping over 150
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
In earnings calls last year, when the tariffs were being imposed-- then taken away-- then reimposed (you were there, you remember how it was) execs admitted "taking pricing," as they say, but were very super squirrelly about just how much of the tariffs were hitting consumer prices.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Cracker Barrel exec says only that of the $15M in tariff refunds, $5.9 million have been "reinvested in the business" leaving a "net tariff refund benefit of $9.1 million." Neither of which especially sounds like "let's give it back to consumers who paid the tariffs in the first place."
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Didn't expect to see Cracker Barrel on the list of companies getting Trump tariff refund checks in the mail from American taxpayers, but here we are: on CB's quarterly earnings call, an exec says their 2026 refund is $15 million. So... what are they doing with it? seekingalpha.com/article/4949...
seekingalpha.com
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
FASB's not a gov't agency, but its regulatory power is delegated by Congress. So Congress could decide that we shouldn't know about Thor's bullshit "income" in Bermuda and un-delegate that power. And, funny story, Republicans did *try* to do that last fall. They failed. www.bdo.com/insights/tax...
bdo.com
Congress Returns to Face Fight Over Funding, Tax Priorities
Learn about the latest developments as Congress debates funding and tax issues that could impact organizations nationwide.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I'm a glass half full guy, so here it is: it's not great that a RV manufacturer can pretend to make money in a place where they don't actually do anything. But, because the teenagers running DOGE couldn't eliminate the Financial Accounting Standards Board, Thor has to tell the world what they did.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thor's 10-K says that at year-end, they had 19,500 full-time employees worldwide. 11,900 FTE's in the United States, and 7,600 in Europe. That's it. What they have in Bermuda is... a shell corporation. Freya Holdings Ltd (listed in the 10-k). And, apparently, every dime of their non-US income.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is especially interesting because Thor's foreign income last year totalled $78 million, meaning every last dime of Thor's foreign income was apparently earned in a place where they have no meaningful physical presence. www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Arch...
sec.gov
XBRL Viewer
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Abroad, the new disclosures give us bread crumbs, which is more than we had before. Thor must now disclose that they saved $5 million as result of the lower tax rate in Bermuda. 6% rate differential (15% B minus 21% US) means they likely had 5/6%= $83 million of income in Bermuda last year.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
And thanks to the detailed new income tax disclosures now in effect, we get a better sense of how Thor avoided all federal income taxes on $160 million of income. Almost all of its *domestic* tax breaks come from a Trump OBBBA provision allowing immediate expensing of R&D. That's at least $20M.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thor Industries makes RV's, including the iconic Airstream. They also make bank, courtesy of American taxpayers. Thor just released its FY26 annual report, which gives the first clean look at how last year's Trump tax cuts affect the company. It shows a zero % tax rate on $160 million of US income .
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Brinker calculates the ratio of CEO to median worker pay is 1,274 to 1. For context, @aflcio.org "Executive paywatch" pegs the average ratio at 312 to 1. aflcio.org/paywatch
aflcio.org
Executive Paywatch - 2026 | AFL-CIO
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
At the 21% corporate rate, that mean the company paid its execs a total of $90 million over that $1 M cap on deductible pay. From the required disclosure on the ratio of CEO to median worker pay, we know that $30M of this $90M is for the CEO. www.sec.gov/Archives/edg...
sec.gov
DEF 14A
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
So the Chili's tip tax break is sheltering 3/4 of Brinker's income from tax. But there's a fun flip side: Brinker is so enamored with its executives that it paid an extra $19 million of tax last year for the privilege of paying them over the $1 million cap on deductible pay.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
No one has gone after the FICA credit since Obama. Biden had bigger tax fish to fry and ignored this. Trump, in a classic "hold my beer" moment, proposed exempting some tip income from tax *and* expanding the FICA credit to include barbershops and nail salons, and it was enacted as part of OBBBA!
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
If the FICA credit was bulls**t in 2015, it smells even worse now: if the whole point is to get tip income reported so it's subject to federal income tax, but now the federal income tax is exempting a bunch of tip income, what's the point of the credit exactly?
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Even in 2015, JCT called bulls*** on the FICA credit a little bit, noting that "any positive revenue effect of the increased compliance is small compared to the tax expenditure associated with the credit." And then last year OBBBA created a new temporary federal income tax exemption for some tips.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Brinkers gets a credit of 7.65% of its workers' tips, with an exception for tips earned by workers whose pay is under $5.15 an hour. This is supposed to give companies like Brinkers an incentive to report its workers tip income to the IRS, which means it's subject to personal income tax.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
President Obama proposed repealing the FICA tip credit a lifetime ago. The Joint Commitee on Taxation's analysis of this proposal is here. Notable because JCT comes closer than they usually do to saying "yeah that's a good idea." www.congress.gov/114/cprt/JPR...
congress.gov
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Brinker claims $58 million of FICA tax credits, which alone explains 2/3 of the gap between the 21% tax rate they are supposed to pay and the 5% they actually paid in 2025. JCT says the FY25 cost of the corporate FICA credit was $900 million nationwide, so Chili's is taking a big chunk of that.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Brinker International, parent corporation of Chili's, reports a surprisingly low 5% federal tax rate, on $579 M of income, in their just-released FY26 annual report. Brinker's tax rate is affected by how it treats its workers and its executives, in opposite ways. (1/x) www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Arch...
sec.gov
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Watching it now for the first time, I can imagine how most people would feel watching “Citizen Kane” for the first time. Nothing new here thru a 2026 lens, why is this interesting.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I worked at an independent video store in the 80s while in HS. I’ve seen a lot of films, including all the big releases of that era and some real schlock as well as all the classics. Have always somehow instinctively avoided “Scarface.”
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Didn’t have “outdoor screening of Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial” on my dance card when I took the dog there last night but there it was. www.eventbrite.com/e/can-i-kick...
eventbrite.com
CAN I KICK IT? Outdoor Movie Series: “Scarface"
The CAN I KICK IT? Outdoor Movie Series concludes on Sept 5 with a screening of the cult classic film "Scarface" at the Lincoln Memorial.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
IRC section 41 R&D credit is all about the process of research, not the outcome. It's an astonishing legal blind spot: fully 30 years after the tobacco executives finally admitted smoking is addictive, they can still get tax breaks from trying to get Americans to do it more. Ditto for gambling.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
On its face, the corporate income tax should be 21% of US income. Light & Wonder's current federal tax rate last year was just 12.6%. And every dime of the company's tax breaks can be explained by federal tax subsidies for research, primarily the OBBBA provision allowing immediate expensing of R&D.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This is b/c the R&D credit defines eligible research in terms of effectiveness, not social outcomes. The test is, does it result in a "a new or improved function" for what a company does, and doesn't ask whether the company's doing something socially harmful. www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/...
law.cornell.edu
26 U.S. Code § 41 - Credit for increasing research activities
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
They also spend a lot of money on R&D. A quarter of a billion dollars in 2025 alone, all of which is presumably geared toward more efficiently separating gullible gamblers from their money. It would be obviously absurd for American taxpayers to subsidize this kind of research. And yet we do.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Light & Wonder is all about gambling. They're based in Vegas. They develop the algorithms behind slot machines. They manufacture the machines, place them in casinos, & then make money as people play them. And, like any gaming company, they prey on Americans with a poor understanding of statistics.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
A really straightforward criticism of the R&D tax credit is that it rewards companies for spending money on basically any kind of research. The research doesn't have to be socially useful, and can even be destructive. Case in point: the Light & Wonder corporation. (1/x) itep.org/lawmakers-se...
itep.org
Lawmakers Seek to Extend Tax Break for “Research” that Corporations Use to Develop Frozen Foods, New Beer Flavors, Casino Games and Tax Avoidance
If Congress creates a tax break to encourage businesses to conduct research that benefits society, should Netflix be eligible for…
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
When a single company paying a pedestrian 16.5% tax rate can blow a $3.2 billion hole in the federal budget in just three months, that's as a clear an indication of the consolidation of corporate power as you'll ever see. It matters *a lot* how we tax the big tech firms at this particular moment.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Quarterlies generally include (at most) combined current/deferred tax expense, and Nvidia reports a 16.5% tax rate by that measure. But that means for the last 3 months alone the company saved $3.2 billion in taxes. s201.q4cdn.com/141608511/fi...
s201.q4cdn.com
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Seems quaint now that I was astonished 6 months ago by Nvidia's blockbuster 2025 earnings: $123 billion. This was notable b/c even at a not-terrible 15.5% federal effective tax rate, the company avoided $6.8 billion of tax for the year. But then came last week's *quarterly* earnings: $71 billion.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Trinity Rodman is so totally back. She was just toying with defenders today. #washingtonspirit
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Unsurprisingly, the few other companies that do this tend to be oil companies with interests in the aforementioned Gulf. Halliburton, Williams, APA, Occidental Petroleum.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
This isn't why I was looking at Chevron's latest quarterly earnings report, but was struck by the fact that both the CEO and CFO refer, in their oral presentations during the earnings call, to the company's activities in the "Gulf of America." www.fool.com/earnings/cal...
fool.com
Chevron (CVX) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript | The Motley Fool
Record U.S. production and $8.4B debt reduction drive strong results.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I can’t not try something like this when I see it. Just in case it is the ur- pad Thai.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Turns out Home Depot has "experienced unplanned pressure from fuel, energy and other product input costs." So they're basically saying, as diplomatically as they can, that they're using the tariff refunds for gas money because Trump's war in Iran is boosting prices at the pump.
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
This week the other shoe dropped: Home Depot reported in its latest earnings call that it will receive $730 million in tariff refunds after the Trump tariffs were found to have been illegally imposed. But consumers won't get a check in the mail for the tariffs they paid. bsky.app/profile/carl...
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Matthew Gardner @mindthegaap.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Earlier this year, Home Depot inartfully walked this claim back, admitting retail prices on affected items would go up by 3 percent in a February earnings call, and concluded that "we feel great about our position" on that result. seekingalpha.com/article/4873...
seekingalpha.com
The Home Depot, Inc. (HD) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
Home Depot (HD) Q4 FY2025 earnings recap: sales, comps, margins, Pro & digital growth, SRS/GMS impact, dividend hike, and FY2026 guidance—read now.
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