Fox News Can Claim a Massive Tax Deduction for Its Settlement Over Election Lies
After its hosts repeatedly lied about voting machine company Dominion rigging the 2020 elections, Fox News agreed to pay $787 million to Dominion to settle a defamation lawsuit. Fox can deduct over $200 million in taxes because of the settlement payment.

On Tuesday, Fox News and its parent company Fox Corporation agreed to pay a $787 million settlement to Dominion, concluding two years of litigation over the news network’s false claims, made by Tucker Carlson and others, that the 2020 election was rigged. (Janos Kummer / Getty Images)
Fox’s massive settlement with private-equity-backed voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems didn’t just spare the conservative news organization from a lengthy public defamation trial or a full public reckoning for its election lies — it could also mean a tax break as large as $213 million, according to a Lever review.
On Tuesday, Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corporation, agreed to pay a $787 million settlement to Dominion, the largest-known media defamation payout in US history, concluding two years of litigation over the news network’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
Thanks to an arcane line in the tax code, Fox can deduct that settlement payment from its income taxes, according to a company spokesperson and tax experts consulted by the Lever. That’s because federal law allows taxpayers to write off many legal costs, providing that they are “ordinary and necessary” business expenses. The IRS has repeatedly affirmed that for major corporations, paying out settlements is just part of the cost of doing business.