Las Vegas Sands posts Q4 loss due to one-time tax payment

Las Vegas Sands Corp. reported a net loss of $40 million for the fourth quarter of last year, as a result of a one-time income tax expense of $727 million.

The quarterly loss reversed the gains from the fourth quarter of 2017, when the company posted a net income of $1.36 billion.

The nonrecurring tax payment led to a reduced net profit for the whole of 2018, of $2.95 billion, 9.6% lower than the previous year’s net profit of $3.26 billion.

The $727-million tax expense was due to the company adopting as of January 1, 2018 the “recently issued guidance by the Internal Revenue Service related to the international provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act… Our effective income tax rate for the fourth quarter of 2018 would have been 7.4% without the discrete expense associated with the Act.”