Huge technology layoffs may be a mistake in reducing Trump tax for 2017

Good times in the Silicon Valley ended – at least in relation to the current generation of programmers. the The software industry is shrinking Since 2023, the technology industry has been walking in functions at an amazing rate. The workers who have been safe for several years are now Out of donkeys. While the reasons for this are varied (artificial intelligence is often discussed in the name of The potential perpetrator The total economy has achieved up and down over the past few years), and one of the potential drivers can be the tax cuts that Trump passed in 2017.

It turned out that an unknown ruling from the 2017 tax discounts and jobs (TCJA) has changed a long -term vulnerability, known as Section 174, which allowed the technology industry to empty the cost of searches and development on the federal government. Before TCJA, technology companies can discount 100 percent of research and development costs, allowing technology companies freedom to commit significant resources towards innovation. Bloomberg reports This, where Congress sought to find a way to compensate for the cost of giving significant tax cuts to billionaires, was one place where they discovered fat in trimming research and development in the technology industry.

On the draft law of 2017, the deduction of a full deletion to the financing that must be analyzed over several years. However, the ruling that prepared for financing did not start until 2022. After a short period of its entry into force, the technology industry began to get rid of jobs such as no one.

In fact, 2023 and 2024 It was a bad years historically For the technology industry, with major companies such as Meta, Amazon and Google Booting Commers by thousands. Quartz took a deeper look at the relations between the transformation of this policy and the problems of the technology industry Now it speculates There is a positive relationship:

… The late change has contributed to a tax rule-old-buried in the depth of the 2017 tax law-in the loss of hundreds of thousands of white archaeological jobs. This is the image that arises from the review of corporate files and public financial data, analyzing time tables and interviews with those familiar with the industry. One of the accountants, who works for the company in a technical company, described it as a “specialized issue with a wide influence”, also echoing the feelings of investment capital investors who conducted an interview with this article. Some spoke on the condition that their identity is not disclosed to discuss sensitive political matters.

Quartz also notes that changing politics would have been translated into a loss of income for a variety of positions:

The tax benefits of the salaries of engineers, products managers, projects, data scientists and even some of the user and marketing employees- all of them have reduced the taxable income in the first year- must now be published over a period of five or 15 years.

The fact that the government’s support for Silicon Valley is especially ridiculous, given Anti -government feelings It is currently in industry. People like Mark Andresson Do you believe you? The research and development of this technology can be funded through private funds alone, although there is no busy record of this. At the same time, at the same time, at the same time, Recently The same government parts that were responsible for helping companies such as Tesla (Tesla). It is another sign that billionaires in America are so much that they are ready to photograph a gift horse in the mouth and call it victory.

Not everyone in the technology industry is a fool. There are currently concerted efforts to support the government’s research and development. the The American Competitiveness Law for Innovation, Research and DevelopmentAnd, which was presented by the coalition coalitions from both parties, would restore the full flow of the Federal dollar to meet the needs of technology. Last month, representatives from major technology companies And according to what was reported To the Trump administration that they may back down from previous pledges to invest the United States if no fully tax support is no longer.