A tax credit created to encourage research and experimentation has become a multibillion-dollar windfall for Meta. A New York Times investigation found that the company is claiming the credit for data centers and computer chips used in AI by classifying those facilities as experimental pilot models.

Meta’s total research tax credits reached $3.9 billion in 2025, up from $700 million in 2023. Its data-center tax dodging strategy began in 2024, and the company now receives more from the research tax credit than any other publicly traded corporation. The scale of these claims demands serious scrutiny.

The company’s own financial disclosures warn that research-credit uncertainties could lead tax authorities to overturn claimed benefits. Tax experts interviewed by the Times questioned Meta’s approach, and some employees in its finance department raised concerns about whether the strategy would withstand an IRS challenge.

The research credit has eligibility requirements. Purchasing expensive equipment and calling a facility experimental does not, by itself, establish that those requirements have been met. Meta must substantiate its claims, and the IRS must examine whether the company has improperly turned commercial expansion into a taxpayer subsidy.

Congress has a responsibility to press for oversight and protect the resources needed to enforce the tax laws against powerful corporations. If an investigation finds that Meta claimed credits it was not entitled to receive, the IRS should recover the resulting unpaid taxes and assess applicable interest and penalties.

Demand that lawmakers urge the IRS to investigate Meta’s AI data-center tax claims, recover every dollar improperly claimed, and protect corporate IRS tax enforcement funding.