Citing Bad Economy, Exxon-Mobil Lays Off 25 Congressmen

[wtmusic]

Now for the sad-but-true part:

"Thanks to offshore tax havens and loopholes created by Big Oil lobbyists and their supporters in Congress, oil giant Exxon Mobil paid no income taxes to the U.S. government in 2009.

As reported by Forbes:

Exxon tries to limit the tax pain with the help of 20 wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands that (legally) shelter the cash flow from operations in the likes of Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. No wonder that of $15 billion in income taxes last year, Exxon paid none of it to Uncle Sam, and has tens of billions in earnings permanently reinvested overseas.

You read that correctly. Despite reporting a gross operating profit of over $52 billion in 2009, Exxon paid no income tax to the federal government.

In fact, American middle class families pay more federal taxes on a single gallon of gasoline (18.4 cents) than Exxon Mobil paid in U.S. income taxes in all of 2009.

When President Obama released a budget ending tax breaks for oil companies, the industry brazenly protested. The American Petroleum Institute released a statement griping that "now is not the time to impose new taxes on the nation's oil and natural gas industry."

Even though Exxon doesn't contribute anything to the federal government, it spends millions of dollars trying to control it. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Exxon Mobil spent a whopping $27,430,000 on lobbying in 2009 alone."

http://mediamattersaction.org/blog/201004060001

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. Did you know the government makes more in fuel taxes than oil companies make in profits?

When you look at the federal and state gasoline excise taxes versus the profit oil companies make from that gasoline...
The government makes more in taxes than the oil company makes in profits.
Basically, the gov profits MORE from gasoline/fuel than Big Oil - and all they're doing is collecting the cash (tax).

The largest cost factor in gasoline prices is the overhead cost of drilling and refining the oil.
The next contributing cost factor is federal and state taxes. IIRC, fed tax is ~ 20 cents/ gal and state taxes vary.
Next comes the actual "profit" from the gasoline (about 13 cents per gallon in 2007).

So despite the possibility that their profits may not have been taxed...
Big Oil's products are easily one of the most taxed products in America.
Theoretically, these excise taxes cut into potential profit - so the end effect is effectively the same. So even if Big Oil's profit were taxed, such cost would simply be passed onto the consumer.

[wtmusic]

2. The government collects the tax

then there's this multi-billion dollar highway infrastructure to maintain...

[joshcryer]

3. And yet still we have the lowest fuel taxes in the world.

By far.

[joshcryer]

4. This is going to sound radical but energy companies need to be closed down and socialized.

This is bullshit.