Insurance will likely cover tens of millions of the cost as well.
Fox News may claim a tax break on the $787.5 million settlement it reached with Dominion Voting Systems last week, experts say.
The network last week agreed to pay the voting machine company the largest known sum to settle a defamation case in history after acknowledging it aired false claims alleging Dominion rigged the election against former President Donald Trump.
Despite the big payout, the overall cost the conservative media company will actually need to fork over itself will likely be far smaller. Experts told The Associated Press that the lawsuit’s actual cost remains murky because of ways Fox can offset the financial hit, specifically through insurance and tax deductions.
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A tax write-off could potentially save Fox News millions, The New York Times reported, as U.S. law permits companies to deduct at least some amount of settlement fees “as the cost of doing business.”
Robert Willens, a tax professor at Columbia Business School, estimates that once is all said and done, Fox will be on the hook for approximately $590 million.
“The key is that if the payments are being made to private parties and not at the behest of the government then you can pretty much conclude without any fear of contradiction that the payment will be deductible,” Willens told the outlet.
