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Gasoline Taxes Per Gallon Nearly 7 Times Exxon Mobiles

Most of you probably have no idea about this (for good reason) but Exxon basically got in deep **** with various governments over transfer pricing where they would sell a barrel of crude oil for basically nothing to an entity in a low tax country like the Cayman Islands who would then resell the same barrel of oil to its US refining affiliate. If oil was going for $25, they would sell the barrel of crude to the CI entity for $23.5 when it cost them $5 to produce, have that profit get taxed at a super low rate and resell the same barrel at $24 with $1 being taxed at US corporate rates. And it was more then Exxon doing this. They lost the court case, paid a big fine and now have their transfer pricing subject to IRS adjustment.

Refining has always been a low profit business. Extraction is always where the big money is.
 
obvious Child said:
Most of you probably have no idea about this (for good reason) but Exxon basically got in deep **** with various governments over transfer pricing where they would sell a barrel of crude oil for basically nothing to an entity in a low tax country like the Cayman Islands who would then resell the same barrel of oil to its US refining affiliate. If oil was going for $25, they would sell the barrel of crude to the CI entity for $23.5 when it cost them $5 to produce, have that profit get taxed at a super low rate and resell the same barrel at $24 with $1 being taxed at US corporate rates. And it was more then Exxon doing this. They lost the court case, paid a big fine and now have their transfer pricing subject to IRS adjustment.

Refining has always been a low profit business. Extraction is always where the big money is.
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I was not aware of this. Thanks! This makes me question even more why we continue to give huge subsidies to the oil companies who produce very few new jobs in this country.
 
Catawba said:
I was not aware of this. Thanks! This makes me question even more why we continue to give huge subsidies to the oil companies who produce very few new jobs in this country.
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It's not so bad anymore. Transfer pricing is nowhere near the level of abuse it used to be since the IRS can basically adjust the transfer pricing however it wants. That cut down on a lot of abuse. That said, there is a big demand for transfer pricing work. But it's more to keep the IRS off their back by showing solid reasoning assigning value and profit to locations based on services and manufacturing done at such locations. Amending a big oil firm's 1120 return for transfer pricing can easily cost millions. Even defending the audit successfully with no additional tax is costly. Better to just pay to get it done right and acceptable to the IRS. I know a girl who's sole job is transfer pricing at a big 4 accounting firm.

As for subsidies, I'm for cutting them as they are basically welfare, but at the same time cutting them will cause gas prices to increase.
 
obvious Child said:
It's not so bad anymore. Transfer pricing is nowhere near the level of abuse it used to be since the IRS can basically adjust the transfer pricing however it wants. That cut down on a lot of abuse. That said, there is a big demand for transfer pricing work. But it's more to keep the IRS off their back by showing solid reasoning assigning value and profit to locations based on services and manufacturing done at such locations. Amending a big oil firm's 1120 return for transfer pricing can easily cost millions. Even defending the audit successfully with no additional tax is costly. Better to just pay to get it done right and acceptable to the IRS. I know a girl who's sole job is transfer pricing at a big 4 accounting firm.

As for subsidies, I'm for cutting them as they are basically welfare, but at the same time cutting them will cause gas prices to increase.
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Either way, we pay. I would rather those that waste the most gas pay the most. :sun
 
Catawba said:
Either way, we pay. I would rather those that waste the most gas pay the most. :sun
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So you favor a price scheme based on MPG? In theory not a bad idea, but it would be regressive. How you ask? Generally the poor (and not the welfare fraud wankers who should be tazed) buy used cars which tend overall to have lower mileage simply due to age.
 
obvious Child said:
So you favor a price scheme based on MPG? In theory not a bad idea, but it would be regressive. How you ask? Generally the poor (and not the welfare fraud wankers who should be tazed) buy used cars which tend overall to have lower mileage simply due to age.
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With the last 30 years of tax breaks to the wealthy, our subsidies to oil companies are regressive either way it seems to me. I would prefer the real life incentive that has worked so well in other countries to increase the milage of the majority of vehicles. We are the most wasteful society on the planet.
 
We are the only society on the planet that wastes? I'm sure you jest.
 
Catawba said:
No, as a matter of fact, gas taxes don't completely pay for the construction and maintenance of roads.
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Clearly the government must do something about this.

It must stop using unionized road crews.
 
Barbbtx said:
That's what the left is hoping for Whovian. They want us to regret what we drive so we'll be nudged into a vehicle and life style they prefer.
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The Mayor's vehicle is an ancient cargo van that gets 10 miles to the gallon and scares the crap out of anyone silly enough to think about cutting him off. It's 350-V8 engine takes no prisoners and empty as it usually is, it picks up quite nicely.

The Mayor ain't selling.
 
Barbbtx said:
Peak oil? What the hec is that? We are finding new oil and technoligies to get to it like we never could before. If we are at peak oil it's only because we aren't tapping into our own resources. We also have over a hundred years of natural gas. Also,
Why are liberals constantly comparing us to other countries? We aren't other countries, we're different and I like it that way, don't you?
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Peak oil is the imaginary theory that if the United States won't drill for oil it can't drill for oil and if it can't drill for oil it has to pay more for oil.
With a trillion barrel oil reserve, the United States is the richest oil producer on the planet.

Tapping that oil would put millions to work, expand the economy, reduce the imaginary need for social services programs, end the national debt, and make a mockery of everything the Democrats stand for.


Except for the presence of the Liberals, the United States is the best place on Earth.

Actually, even with those damn things here the US is the best place on Earth.
 
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StillBallin75 said:
I guess my take on this would be "something's better than nothing." It's already evident that he's done a lot more than any other President has in the last two decades. And I'm guessing the President is still wary after what happened in the Gulf last year.
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Obama's EPA refused Shell Oil's bid to extract 27 billion barrels from the North Shore of Alaska because the ice breaker proposed would not cause the air quality at an Eskimo village 100km away to exceed it's air quality limits.

that's right. Because the limits will not be exceeded, the oil 70 miles away cannot be drilled.

And you want to pretend Obama is expanding drilling, even as the Obama gang refuses all drilling permits in the Gulf, even after the courts ruled that moratorium to be groundless and unconstitutional.
 
UtahBill said:
going green is bad? going clean is bad? Only in Texas.....
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Going green is bad. Just in case you missed it, the rising energy costs are shutting down the imaginary recovery. The energy prices are rising because the so-called "green" energy not only lacks the maturity to do the job, it's never going to fit in a gas tank.

When the economy is ready for this green nonsense, the respective industries won't need money stolen from taxpayers to be profitable.
 
DontDoIt said:
And it's proven to be so successful when and where? I'm not opposed to alternative energy, as nobody should be, however green policies implemented into todays markets have not been nearly as splenful as advertised, whether one likes to admit or not.
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It's working well in Spain. More and more people are out of work and becoming dependent on a political party for subsistence....

Oh...

...that's not what you meant, is it?

It's what the Democrats want, though.
 
Barbbtx said:
Because it scared everybody and our lawmakers put those plans on the back burner for now.
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No. It scared those with the medical condition the TV commercials call "Low T", which the rest of us call "No Balls", and gave propaganda fuel to the anti-nuclear power branch of the Hate America Not Matter How Much It Hurts The Country Club, more commonly known as the Environmentalist Wing of the Democrat Party.

The fact of the matter is that there weren't any plans for new nuclear reactors in the kitchen let alone anywhere near a stove...unless one of the Environmentalists was trying to burn them.
 
Catawba said:
It has been found that the higher the cost of cigerettes, the more people quit.
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Not the proper sphere of government.

And before you begin the long boring lecture about the health expenses to the public by tobacco related illnesses, guess what?

Providing health care isn't the proper sphere of government.

Here's another thing:

Dictating automotive fuel efficiencies isn't the proper role of government, either. The government is currently in the business of collecting taxes from the gasoline prices it's helped to inflate by arbitrarily and unreasonably denying drilling permits to domestic oil companies, and propagandizing the "need" for it to control fuel efficiencies by legislative fiat because the price of fuel is being driven by despot laden oil from overseas, even though the United States has the largest known reserves of oil on the planet.

Drilling domestically is going to be what keeps Obama out of office in 2013.
 
Catawba said:
I was not aware of this. Thanks! This makes me question even more why we continue to give huge subsidies to the oil companies who produce very few new jobs in this country.
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The oil companies would produce more jobs in THIS country if they were allowed to drill in THIS country. Funny thing about oil jobs.

The jobs are where the oil is. Can't outsource that.

But, since the Democrats don't want to create new jobs, they're opposed to domestic drilling.
 
Catawba said:
It has been found that the higher the cost of cigerettes, the more people quit. I think that is a good thing. I have not heard of protest by the middle class of an increase in cigerette taxes have you? Is there a Tobbaco Leaf Party I have missed somewhere along the way?
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It is not the job of government to play Mommy Dearest. Tobacco is a legal product and if someone wants to smoke, that is their business.

Government should get the flock out of our lives. We are adults, have the right to choose.

Perhaps they should abolish abortions based on your logic alone, for it has proven to increase the chance of suicide and depression, and reducing both would be a good thing don't you think?

On the same line of thinking, having unprotected sex has proven to increase the chances of death from HIV/AIDS, and then there is a whole host of STD's. Perhaps we should have government in our bedrooms too to reduce the chances of HIV/AIDS and STD's for reducing both would be a good thing don't you think?

Don't you think?

Mayor Snorkum said:
Not the proper sphere of government.

Here's another thing:

Dictating automotive fuel efficiencies isn't the proper role of government, either.
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It also increases the chances of death, for cars need be built lighter, which means the likelihood of dying in a collision increases too. This hits the average folks the hardest as they're the ones buying the ultra-lite shoe boxes.

Once again, government screws the masses... and for what? That religion known as Global Warming... ugh.

.
 
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Catawba said:
What is your proposal to generate the needed revenue if not gas taxes, toll roads?
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I believe the original intent was to point out that the profit the company makes isn't really all that much, especially when you look at what the government makes per gallon.

Catawba said:
I don't know about you but my taxes went down under this administration.
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But what happened to your rates? And which taxes went down? Many different taxes went up, but people only seem to focus on the Income Tax as the indicator.

shintao said:
No, not at all. I don't think the figure .07 cents is correct. Big Oil talks "OPEC" costs per barrel, but 1/3 of the barrels comes from your own US oil on leased federal land, virtually free. It only costs .34 cents to refine a gallon of gasoline from 2 gals of crude. The by-products profits from the 2nd gallon pay for all of refining costs, plus more. ie. plastic additives, gas additives, motor oil & lube oils, pesticides, etc.

Note: Keep that in mind when discussing Nationalizing US oil and selling for $1.00 .
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Where do you get your .34 figure from? Does that include facility rent/mortgage, maintenance, worker's pay/benefits, insurance, regulation compliance cost and a bevy of other costs/fees that the company must pay out that become part of the price of gas in the end. Oh yeah and all the taxes paid along the way as well. They're tucked in on the final price as well BEFORE it gets to the pump and has the gas tax added on.

UtahBill said:
going green is bad? going clean is bad? Only in Texas.....
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It can be when the "green" alternative is way more costly than the current, and it creates less jobs. Green is a good goal and one we should be striving to reach, but forcing it too early before it is really ready to help the economy as well as the environment could cause the loss of both.
 
maquiscat said:
It can be when the "green" alternative is way more costly than the current, and it creates less jobs. Green is a good goal and one we should be striving to reach, but forcing it too early before it is really ready to help the economy as well as the environment could cause the loss of both.
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Forcing it too early? Green is too green, not ripe yet?:shock:
Only a small part of green technology is new....most of it is very mature. We already know how to increase efficiencies in our buildings, but only a few builders/contractors are doing it. Every new building should have to meet energy use standards as listed in Architecture 2030. No new home should be built without an energy review where a TRAINED building codes officer sits down with the buyer and explains how a few changes can make a big difference in energy bills.
Picture this, Logan, Utah and the communities around it enjoy mild summers and thanks to its elevation, cool nights during those summers. It is "high desert". Most of the older homes have NO air conditioners, many have evaporative cooling.
Most of the newer homes have AC, and the larger ones have multiple AC units.
Several have way too many windows facing east and west, for the view.
Why are we building energy hog buildings at a time when energy is a big issue?:(
That trend is reversing, according to articles I have read. But it needs to reverse a bit quicker.
 
Henrin said:
Its always fun to discriminate against people because of what they do!

You say you support equality, but you don't mean it.
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My last 3 years in the Navy, early 74 to mid 77, was spent working in a poorly ventilated building, with a lot of smokers. After work, I would take my outer clothing off in the garage, and head for the shower. I had strep throat several times a year for those 3 years.
My exit physical chest xray showed the results in my lungs, the doctor told me to quit smoking.... When I told him I don't smoke, he asked me how long ago I quit. Told him I never started, then explained the second hand smoke situation.
Thank you, smokers, for being selfish and ignorant....
 
obvious Child said:
It's not so bad anymore. Transfer pricing is nowhere near the level of abuse it used to be since the IRS can basically adjust the transfer pricing however it wants. That cut down on a lot of abuse. That said, there is a big demand for transfer pricing work. But it's more to keep the IRS off their back by showing solid reasoning assigning value and profit to locations based on services and manufacturing done at such locations. Amending a big oil firm's 1120 return for transfer pricing can easily cost millions. Even defending the audit successfully with no additional tax is costly. Better to just pay to get it done right and acceptable to the IRS. I know a girl who's sole job is transfer pricing at a big 4 accounting firm.

As for subsidies, I'm for cutting them as they are basically welfare, but at the same time cutting them will cause gas prices to increase.
Click to expand...

There are people here on DP who deny that the oil companies get subsidies....
 
Mayor Snorkum said:
Clearly the government must do something about this.

It must stop using unionized road crews.
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already being done, by people who speak Spanish well, and english poorly....has the price per mile of new roads gone down?
 
Mayor Snorkum said:
Going green is bad. Just in case you missed it, the rising energy costs are shutting down the imaginary recovery. The energy prices are rising because the so-called "green" energy not only lacks the maturity to do the job, it's never going to fit in a gas tank.

When the economy is ready for this green nonsense, the respective industries won't need money stolen from taxpayers to be profitable.
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Got links to prove any of this?
Rising prices of energy hasn't made very many of us drive less, cool/heat our homes any less.
Energy prices for businesses are passed on to the consumer.

I think you are inventing things....
 
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