Full disclosure: I've made my contribution to the popularity of "House of Cards" by watching all three seasons (FWIW, I thought the third season was stilted, pretty boring in many parts and, basically, a slightly edgier version of "The West Wing" and that's not meant as a positive...). That said, this doesn't surprise me because no corporation is immune from trying to take advantage of our dumb tax system that consistently rewards corporations for no good reason at the expense of taxpayers.
Citizens for Tax Justice tells us the seamy side of the real-life series:
While the show follows the shadowy manipulations of Frank Underwood, the company and producers behind the show have done some manipulating of their own to get millions in generous tax breaks from the state of Maryland for the production of its third season.
Last year, the producers of House of Cards played hardball with Maryland lawmakers by threatening to “break down our stage, sets and offices and set up in another state" if they did not receive millions more in tax credits. Pairing this stick with a carrot, the House of Cards producers brought in Kevin Spacey to meet with "star-struck" lawmakers and push for the passage of more tax breaks for the TV series.
The trouble for Maryland lawmakers is and continues to be that the film tax credit program lavishing House of Cards with millions in tax breaks provides very little economic benefit to Maryland taxpayers—in fact, the entire program has cost the state $62.5 million since 2012. A recent study by the Maryland Department of Legislative Services found that the film tax credit in Maryland only brings in 10 cents for every dollar that it provides in economic benefits.
It is absolutely true that these tax breaks get put into place by dumb-ass legislators who should be voted out of office for turning over hard-earned money workers pay in taxes that ends up in the bottom line of corporations. This is a decades-old problem.
But, it's still a scam. As CTJ sums it up:
The tax swindle that Netflix is running with the production of House of Cards would be enough to make Frank Underwood proud.