Comments on: House Passes Energy Bill: Would Take Money from Big Oil to Give Plug-in Car Tax Credits

By: Business Tax Guru

Business Tax Guru — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:48:57 +0000

I’ve been active in taxations for lengthier then I care to admit, both on the individual side (all my employed life story!!) and from a legal stand since satisfying the bar and pursuing tax law. I’ve rendered a lot of advice and righted a lot of wrongs, and I must say that what you’ve put up makes complete sense. Please uphold the good work – the more individuals know the better they’ll be armed to comprehend with the tax man, and that’s what it’s all about.

By: law

law — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 21:50:49 +0000

The only real way to shift us away from oil is to put a large tax on gasoline and diesel. If the government did that the market would push alternative technologies. Tax breaks and subsidies for electric cars or EREVs won’t do much at all because they are so unstable no company is going to bet everything on them, but if gasoline were at a steady 8 dollars per gallon you bet there would be a lot of money thrown at alternatives and the change would be quick.

By: mmcc

mmcc — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 03:48:06 +0000

Not sure if this link was posted before but some interesting information on peak oil and the world energy situation from an expert.

http://www.eptrail.com/pages/02friday_m/fri06comm.html

By: noel park

noel park — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:03:44 +0000

Well I don’t know about the oil companies, but I’ll promise you that Hugo Chavez, the Saudi royal family, the government of Iran, Comrade Putin, and a whole bunch of our other pals are doing just great at $103+/barrel.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:42:54 +0000

28 leon
“Does anyone know what the profit margin is for big oil? And how much is already being collected in taxes on/for oil?”

This is a good but rarely asked question. The average profit margin for most oil companies is < 10%. That is low for any industry, and unusually low for an industry as risky as oil. US oil companies were loosing massive amounts of money just 10 years ago. The industries current profits still haven’t made up for those losses. It is the size of the oil industry that allows people to criticise the oil industry’s profits. The oil industry is one of the largest industries if not the largest in the US. An exxon profit of 29 billion doesn’t look so sweet when compaired with an investment of 236 billion. But, if you have a political agenda, 29 billion is all you mention.
exxon’s most recent sec filing can be found here:
http://www.secinfo.com/d1197.u4n.htm#1stPage

Still, I support a heavy tax on oil companies, and tarrifs on cisco, then using that money to fund the technologies like the volt that have the potential to get us off of oil. Yes, I know it would ultimately be paid for at the pump. However, the people would never support a direct tax at the pump. Fortunately, they are too dumb to understand a tax on oil companies amounts to the same thing. I support this tax because we need to move hard, really hard, to get off of oil.