Big Oil Companies Pay Just A 11.7 Percent Tax Rate

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Big oil companies pay 23.3 percentage points less in tax than the rate typically imposed on corporations, according to a new report.

The report, published by Taxpayers for Common Sense, found the U.S.’s 20 largest oil and gas companies paid 11.7 percent in taxes from 2009 to 2013. That’s significantly less than the statutory corporate tax rate of 35 percent, which is typically what corporations pay if they make more than $18.3 million in a year. And the smaller oil firms — those smaller than major firms like ExxonMobil or Chevron — paid even less tax — 3.7 percent, according to the report.

The companies achieved this low rate largely due to “special provisions” in the tax code that allow them to defer large amounts of their taxes. In many cases, the companies were able to defer “more of their federal income taxes than they actually paid during the last five years,” the report stated.

“If an independent oil and gas company constructs an asset like an oil rig, for example, it can claim a tax deduction for all of its intangible drilling costs (IDC), which include the costs of designing and fabricating drilling platforms,” the report explained. “This allows the company to immediately deduct all of these costs from its taxable income.”

Many of these provisions that allow the oil and gas companies to defer their taxes aren’t available to other U.S. taxpayers. Therefore, these provisions give the companies “a significant tax advantage.”

“In effect, these companies are financing significant parts of their business with interest-free loans from U.S. taxpayers,” the report reads.

These findings contradict the language that oil companies typically use when talking about their tax burden, the report notes: the American Petroleum Ins ute, for instance, claims the oil industry pays an effective tax rate of 44.3 percent.

“The oil and gas industry gets no subsidies, zero, nothing,” API President Jack Gerard said last year. “We get cost-recovery benefits, much like other industries. You can go down the road of allowing economic activity, generating hundreds of billions to the government, or you can take the alternative route by trying to extract new revenue from industry by increasing their cost to do business.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/201...-oil-tax-rate/

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Jack Gerard is hired LIAR

What are the estimates of fossil fuel subsidies in the United States?



As of July 2014, Oil Change International estimates the total value of U.S. subsidies to the fossil fuel industry at $37.5 billion annually, including international finance. This does not include military, health, climate, or local pollution costs. These subsidies have increased dramatically as U.S. oil and gas production has increased.\

Many numbers circulate as estimates of U.S. fossil fuel subsidies. This explainer details what those numbers actually represent:

$2.4 Billion: subsidies to the Big Five producers debated and defeated in the Senate in 2011 and 2012

The Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act, sponsored by Senator Menendez (D-NJ) was debated and defeated by the Senate for two years running, and would have eliminated $2.4 billion in annual tax deductions for the five major oil companies: BP, Exxon, Chevron, S and ConocoPhillips.

Although the move would have been an initial step, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. So called “independent” oil companies are hardly small businesses. Major integrated oil companies also include Occidental, Amerada Hess, Marathon, Murphy Oil and dozens of others. Together, these companies produced 53.5 percent of U.S. oil in 2009.

$4 Billion: Subsidy cuts President Obama proposed in every budget he has sent to Congress

President Obama has proposed cutting certain subsidies to the oil and coal industries every year he’s been in office. The projections for savings have varied slightly each year but always hover around $4 billion annually. Congress has never even agreed to vote on all of them.

$10 billion. Pre “All of the Above” low end credible comprehensive estimates. Several independent estimates of U.S. fossil fuel subsidies all arrived at roughly this number, although they consider slightly different things. Recent studies include those conducted by Management Information Services, Environmental Law Ins ute, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – OECD. (The OECD numbers compiled and analyzed here.)

The Sanders / Ellison “End Polluter Welfare Act” also clocked in at $11.3 billion annually - and was also proposed and estimated prior to the U.S. oil and gas production boom.

$18.5 billion: Oil Change International 2014 estimate: federal expolration and production subsidies. Since President Obama took office in 2009, federal fossil fuel production and exploration subsidies have grown in value by 45 percent, from $12.7 billion to a current total of $18.5 billion. This rise is mostly due to increased oil and gas production: the value of tax breaks and other incentives has increased along with greater production and profits, essentially rewarding companies for accelerating climate change.

$21.6 billion: Adding in the states we have data for, the United States as a whole provided $21.6 billion in production and exploration subsidies to the oil, gas, and coal industries in 2013.

$32.8 billion: Adding in consumption subsidies at the Federal and State levels which are on the order of $11 billion a year. Thus the total annual value of all known U.S. state and federal fossil fuel exploration, production, and consumption subsidies is $32.8 billion.

$37.5 billion: U.S. financing of fossil fuel projects overseas increased by 14 percent from $4.1 billion in 2009 to $4.7 billion in 2013, driven by an increase in bilateral oil and gas project lending. This brings the U.S. fossil fuel subsidy total for consumption, production, exploration, and international finance to a staggering $37.5 billion annually.

$52 billion. Highest credible comprehensive estimate (pre All of the Above energy). Includes some costs associated with defending pipelines and shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf. Earth Track, an NGO that specializes in subsidy valuation, estimates that annual oil, gas and coal subsidies total about $52 billion annually.

http://priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies/

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dont forget they get charge a different rate then govt and consumers when it comes to utilities like power and water, biggest wasters