News that Facebook would be receiving a $429 million tax refund was of course misinterpreted by the general public.  The consensus among those who just don’t understand the complete story is that a company as profitable as Facebook should never be able to get out of paying taxes — not with so many ordinary folks who are up to their necks in tax debt, and not in this economic climate.

But Facebook did pay taxes.  According to its 2012 annual earnings report, Facebook says it paid some $2.86 billion in taxes.  So let’s get our facts straight before we go around defriending anyone.  See full story here.