Elon Musk's SpaceX makes money burn up faster than his rockets

The New York Times got its mitts on some confidential documents showing that Elon Musk’s privately held SpaceX had likely paid little or no income tax since being founded in 2002. And the company is even secretly telling investors it may never have to pay any. It’s all part of the joy of how the American tax system props up the ultrawealthy, especially when they are bad at business.

Here’s how it works. SpaceX accumulated over $5 billion in losses by late 2021. There was an existing tax benefit that allowed companies to offset future taxable income, then Trump’s 2017 tax changes eliminated the expiration date on the benefit. Now SpaceX is able to apply almost $3 billion of losses against that future taxable income indefinitely.

It’s always been known that SpaceX gets billions in federal