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Tesla sued by Nevada over unpaid taxes, automaker says it’s a ‘clerical error’

The state of Nevada, where Tesla has an important workforce, filed a lawsuit against the company for a supposed failure to pay $655,000 to the state’s Unemployment Compensation Fund.

Tesla claims a ‘clerical error’.

The complaint was first reported by Bloomberg:

“According to a liability statement filed with the state court, Tesla underpaid for both the quarter ended March 31 and the quarter ended June 30, when the carmaker had $68 million and $55 million in taxable wages, respectively.”

Tesla shorts were quick to use this as an example of Tesla’s financial problems, but the company attributed it to a clerical error.

A Tesla spokesperson sent us the following statement about the situtation:

“Since Tesla acquired SolarCity and incorporated all of its employees, we’ve been in discussions with states over new unemployment insurance contribution rates, which is typical in acquisitions like this. This judgment is the result of a clerical error, and we have processed this payment today to reflect the latest unemployment insurance contribution rates. Over the past 18 months, Tesla has already paid over $3.3 million in unemployment taxes to Nevada.”

Tesla has to respect several employment requirements within the state due to their deal to build the Gigafactory 1 in Nevada.

As we reported based on the most recent report from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, Tesla Gigafactory 1 now employs over 3,000 workers.

Out of those 3,249 workers, Tesla was employing most of them directly, 1,955, but Panasonic also grew its workforce at the factory significantly now employing 1,201 people at the plant and adding even more employees than Tesla during the period.

They all comply with the state’s requirement to have the majority of employees come from Nevada.

During the period, Tesla also employed 1,332 construction workers for a total of 13,743 since the start of construction in 2014.

Originally, the plant was supposed to produce 35 GWh of battery cells and 50 GWh of battery packs. The company later claimed to have found ways to improve efficiency and increase production capacity to 105 GWh of battery cells and 150 GWh of battery packs within the same structure.

Tesla recently claimed to be at 20 GWh of battery production and plans to ramp up to 35 GWh by the end of the year.

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Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

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