Sunday, April 30, 2006
Clearly an American hot button
Oil companies, politicians, & taxes. Read all about it...
Rich Jurgens writes about what the media isn't telling us:
"Governments vigorously tax oil companies for the same reason legendary criminal Willie Sutton robbed banks: 'Because that's where the money is.'
Take the owners of the five East Bay refineries. As a group, Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Valero and Tesoro posted 2005 profits of more than $58 billion, as soaring fuel prices boosted their total sales to $859 billion.
A portion of that money went to finance the operations of governments. The five companies paid $41 billion in income taxes in the United States and other nations during 2005, according to company financial filings.
Those companies also handed over to governments $112 billion in other taxes -- mostly sales and excise taxes. Jonathan Williams, an economist with the pro-business Tax Foundation, said that the oil companies 'are bearing a very substantial load, not only in dollar terms but percentage terms as well.'"
