It's a pretty meaningless number, they don't really pay that much in taxes. Their stock based compensation is artificially inflating it and that also explains t

It's a pretty meaningless number, they don't really pay that much in taxes. Their stock based compensation is artificially inflating it and that also explains the wild differences between quarters. http://qz.com/142032/why-is-facebooks-tax-rate-so-much-higher-than-its-competitors/ http://qz.com/142032/why-is-facebooks-tax-rate-so-much-highe... > Facebook pays its staff with stock options, and thanks to a quirk of tax law, Facebook end up with large costs that can be deducted later. The company issues options to executives and records their a rough estimate of their value in its earnings report. When the options are exercised and the executives purchase the stock, it has often increased in value beyond that estimate—and the company can deduct that new, higher value, even though it didn’t cost it any real cash.