The Surprisingly Strong Case for Colonizing Venus

Sure, that one is available to every kind of company that drills for oil.

barfo

 

I'm not in favor of anything that immediately increases the wealth of the upper class, nor big government.

 

Intangible Drilling Costs

This allows for the deduction of costs associated with drilling, such as those for labor and exploration. API says that this deduction is “no different than the policy behind and treatment of R&D costs for other industries” and notes that while small, independent companies (not targeted by the Senate legislation) can deduct all of these expenses in the first year, bigger, integrated companies can deduct only 70 percent in the first year. This deduction is worth $12.5 billion over the next 10 years, according to the AP report.

 

What does API stand for, Mr. Supposed Skeptic?

barfo

 

Who cares. Is it true or not that the deduction is similar in concept to R&D costs of other industries?

It is true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_&_Experimentation_Tax_Credit

 

Sorry, no, it's not true. You've been sold a bridge by the American Petroleum Institute, which, as you may know, are lobbyists for the oil companies.

Are you paid by Big Oil, Denny? Your claim is obviously and clearly untrue.

I took that text from the website of an oil company.

barfo

 

Those things are COGS to other businesses. Chemicals, fluids, etc.

Apple gets to fully deduct the cost of the glass, metals, and components in every iPhone sold, for example.

Without the fair tax treatment, those Jimmy Carter era gas lines would have continued for 30 years.

 

Ah, so we've gone from 'oil companies get no tax breaks' to 'oil companies deserve tax breaks, it's only fair'.

The American Petroleum Institute has taught you well, oily grasshopper.

barfo

 

If you drilled a tunnel through the Earth and jumped in, it would take you about 42-53 minutes to get to the other side.

 

The government wrote checks for $500M to Solyndra. It cut checks for at least 1/3 of Magnifier's solar panels, and he almost certainly could afford them without those checks.

You seem to think all the money is the government's and what it chooses to let us have is it spending or something. By your logic, the government not taxing them at 36% instead of 35% is a tax break.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbl...tax-provisions-are-not-subsidies-for-big-oil/

 

Now we are moving from 'there are no tax breaks for oil companies' to 'there aren't any really big tax breaks for big oil companies'.

It's true - the tax breaks for small oil companies are bigger than the tax breaks for big oil companies.

barfo

 

There are no tax breaks for oil companies that don't exist for every other company.

period.

You would quantify them writing off salary expense as a tax break.

 

Post #66 in this thread.

barfo

 

How is that not a tax break for oil companies and only oil companies, Denny?

Do you really want to stand your ground here after being absolutely, conclusively proven wrong?

barfo

 

You know barfo, there actually are subsidies for big oil. The strategic oil reserve is one where government buys oil from the oil companies. There's also subsidies for the poor and elderly to buy heating oil in the winter.

Why do you want the poor and elderly to freeze? Let them eat cake?