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- Big Tech’s $2B Ohio discount
Big Tech’s $2B Ohio discount
just added the borders
I share the 4-5 most important accounting that actually matter. I scroll so you don’t have to.
So grab your coffee, take a quick break, and lets catch up.
Today’s Ledger:
Big Tech keeps Ohio’s discount.
The IRS moves fraud fight earlier.
Solar just passed coal.
WTF of the Day🤯
Big Tech almost lost its Ohio discount
Ohio just found out how expensive its data center boom really is. Data centers got about $2 billion in state and local sales tax breaks last year. Lawmakers said they did not know the number had gotten that big, so they held more than 18 hours of hearings and built a bill to shrink future tax breaks.
Then, right before the vote, the whole thing got pulled. The bill would not have touched old deals already given to companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon. Some of those deals can run for 40 years. Ohio has already promised at least $2.3 billion in state sales tax breaks to 18 companies, and officials said the real number could be much higher.
That is why this fight is bigger than one tax credit. Ohio wants the AI boom, the construction money, and the tech jobs. But voters are getting tired of data centers using huge amounts of land, power, and public money while the richest companies in the world get discounts. For now, Big Tech keeps the break. Ohio taxpayers keep the bill.
What’s poppin in accounting🍿
The IRS is done playing defense
Tax fraud used to be easier to spot. Bad names. Weird numbers. Sloppy fake returns. Now the criminals are stealing real payroll data and filing returns that look clean.
That is why the IRS is rebuilding its Security Summit, the fraud-fighting group it runs with states, tax software companies, tax pros, and the wider tax world. The big new focus is payroll providers, because wage and withholding data is exactly what fraudsters need to make a fake return look real.
The IRS is setting up five teams to catch bad signals earlier, track new scams, tighten data protection, share warnings faster, and respond when something breaks. Translation: the IRS does not want to chase the fraud after the refund is gone. It wants to kill the fake return before it gets paid.
Weekly Trend Chart 📊
Solar just passed coal
Coal used to run America. Now it just got passed by sunlight.
In May, solar made up 12.8% of U.S. power generation. Coal made up 12.2%. That is the first time solar has ever beaten coal for a full month in the U.S. It is a small gap, but a big moment. Coal was America’s biggest power source from 1984 to 2010. Now it is sliding while solar keeps stacking panels.
The funny part is the timing. The Trump administration is trying to bring coal back and just backed the industry with almost $700 million. But the grid is voting with math. Solar added 7.8 gigawatts of new capacity in the first quarter, across more than 6 million installations. Coal has politics. Solar has momentum.
Meme of the Day😂
golden handcuffs 😂