Too big to tax: Settlements are tax write-offs for big banks

By Lynnley Browning
Newsweek, New York
Monday, October 27, 2014

At the Justice Department, senior officials like to congratulate themselves on the headline-making, big-bucks settlements they have imposed upon banks and lenders for their part in causing the 2008 mortgage meltdown that sparked the biggest American financial crisis since the Great Depression.

But wait a moment. Those settlement figures are not quite what they seem. Buried deep in the announcements of the astronomical sums that Wall Street banks are being forced to pay is a dirty secret: A big chunk of the hundreds of billions of dollars banks have paid in settlements to various federal agencies and regulators since 2010 is deductible from the taxes banks and lenders pay.

When is a fine not a fine? When it can be put against your tax bill. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

http://www.newsweek.com/2014/11/07/giant-penalties-are-giant-tax-write-o...