What NBC,CBS, and ABC didn't tell you

RAM · Post by **RAM** » Thu May 08, 2008 9:13 am

With all the talk you hear on the major networks about putting a "windfall profits" tax on Big Oil (politically correct to always spell with caps), it seems fair to note the following:

Exxon-Mobil 1st quarter 2008 profit: $10.89 billion (you heard this a lot)
1st quarter income tax paid: $9.3 billion (you never heard this)
Effective tax rate: 49%
Return on capital investment 1st quarter: 8.2%
Average return on capital investment for all U.S. companies: 8%
Exxon-Mobil capital expenditures (e.g. exploration, field developement, refinery maintainance) 1st quarter: $5.49 billion

Exxon-Mobil paid more income tax in the 1st quarter 2008 than any other company in the world.

You will never hear these facts on Nightly News.

Bad Bob (who does not own Exxon stock and who buys Shell gasoline because it doesn't contain any ethanol)

Jack Bright · Post by **Jack Bright** » Thu May 08, 2008 12:38 pm

Yeah sure ! Some one`s "cooking the books." Poor souls.

Reel Geezer · Post by **Reel Geezer** » Thu May 08, 2008 10:12 pm

You could raise their tax rate and they would just increase the price of gasoline. We pay their taxes. And the day a tax increase was announced they would raise the price - not when the tax rate actually changed.

However, if you lowered their tax rate they wouldn't lower the price of gasoline.

RAM · Post by **RAM** » Fri May 09, 2008 10:52 am

Well, you guys have it figured.
Answer to Jack: It appears you know something the IRS doesn't so it is your duty to inform them how Exxon is "cooking the books".

Answer to the Geezer: We pay EVERY company's taxes. Why single out the oil companies for doing it? Any company would try to increase profits if you cut their tax rate. That is why corporate tax rates would be cut-to increase profit. Without profit you can't find more oil-or develop new technologies.
If you guys have evidence the oil companies are breaking the law, it is your duty as good old American citizens to let the FCC and the IRS know!

It is my opinion (worthless) that WE are the bad guys. We buy gas guzzling cars and trucks, make unnecessary trips, own two or more cars per family, boats, motor cycles, lawn mowers, gas-powered trimmers and blowers, gas grills, etc. and burn gas like there is no tomorrow.
The oil companies risk billions to find it for us and when they succeed, we call them crooks.
PS: The return on capitol investment for Google and Microsoft is over 20%. Man! Talk about an "excees profits tax" gold mine!
Bad Bob

orourke · Post by **orourke** » Fri May 09, 2008 12:41 pm

I just bought a 1998 Honda Shadow American Classic Edition 1100cc motorcycle.

Reliving my childhood and loving it. Should lay off reel buying for a while but probably won't. Love those too!

I was a good doo bee as I walk to work. Now I walk home and take a 30 minute cruise on my lunch hour.

Sorry mother earth.

Dave "O"

Post by **john elder** » Fri May 09, 2008 1:21 pm

If you have a doobee on the way to work, you must be a pretty happy, albeit paranoid, workmate...but then, maybe it's a generational thing

RAM · Post by **RAM** » Fri May 09, 2008 2:52 pm

YO Dave-O That little Honda should get up to 60 or so MPG. Harley riders once had some X-rated T-shirts badmouthing Japanese bikes. Now that Harley riders are mostly high tax bracket folks, those shirts are long gone. Plus the fact that Japanese bikes now are really cool (and cost half as much as a hog).

Once my wife and I rented a Yamaha bike on Grand Cayman and rode to a little cafe on the north shore at a crossroads called Hell (for the black coral there looking burned). I told my daughter when I got back that her Momma and I rode a Yamaha to hell and back on vacation. Very few people can say that truthfully. That was my first (and likely last) time to ride one.

Keep on biken! BB

Reel Geezer · Post by **Reel Geezer** » Fri May 09, 2008 10:19 pm

RAM wrote:Well, you guys have it figured.

Answer to the Geezer: We pay EVERY company's taxes. Why single out the oil companies for doing it? Any company would try to increase profits if you cut their tax rate. That is why corporate tax rates would be cut-to increase profit. Without profit you can't find more oil-or develop new technologies.

Bob, I am well aware that we pay every company's taxes. I did not single out the oil companies.

I don't care about their taxes, exploration, etc. Those are all the costs that go into running any company. They are not a part of their profit. They are an expense. The oil company profits are what they made after these taxes, exploration, and all their other costs. Income minus those expenses equals profit. They are the largest profits ever made by any company in US history.

Post by **john elder** » Fri May 09, 2008 11:12 pm

way to go, Geez...I was having a bit of trouble with BB's math as well on this one...but he is one helluva salesman...I had to tear up my donation check to the Oilman's Relief Fund :Dbut in defense of BB (did I say that?!), I have to agree the Enemy is Us...kinda like the drug problem...stop buying the drugs, the problem goes away, eh?

Deke

RAM · Post by **RAM** » Sat May 10, 2008 9:55 am

Geeze-I stand corrected on the pre-tax vs after-tax element (hey, I'm no accountant), but NOT the tax amount or effective tax rate. As to the figures Deke, I didn't dream it up. Go to Exxon-Mobil's quarterly report for the info sent to the IRS. I assume (unlike Brother Jack) they didn't cook the books.
BB

PS: 100 ORCANs (hope there are that many, but probably not) going to the Annual Meeting in CO driving (or flying) one-way an average of 1,000 miles (it would come to just over that for me) comes to round trip total of 200,000 miles traveled. At average of 25 mpg that comes to 8,000 gallons of fuel (or 190.48 bbls Saudi crude). At national average of $3.65/gallon (not for jet fuel) that comes to $29,200. Just so a bunch of mostly old goats can gaggle about old fishing reels (wish I was going to be one of them). My, we do use the fuel don't we! Impressive, isn't it?
Is this math correct Deke? Need all the help I can get.

Post by **john elder** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:14 am

I'm sure it is, BB...and that would be about ..oh...4 minutes of patrol time in Iraq?...and about 1/3 the cost of the wedding reception in Crawford, TX...I don't really feel that guilty at the moment...

Deke

add...we have such a hard life...kinda makes you better appreciate what it feels like to be living on the delta in Myanmar right now, eh fellow Goats?

Jack Bright · Post by **Jack Bright** » Sat May 10, 2008 12:55 pm

As another old man in the movie "Moonstruck" said,
"I`m confused", me too, now I don`t know whether to go
or not. Oh! BLEEP ! I am going. So to bleep with you all !

Reel Geezer · Post by **Reel Geezer** » Sat May 10, 2008 5:30 pm

At national average of $3.65/gallon (not for jet fuel) that comes to $29,200. Just so a bunch of mostly old goats can gaggle about old fishing reels (wish I was going to be one of them). My, we do use the fuel don't we! Impressive, isn't it?

The rub is that just a couple of years ago the same trips would have only cost us $16,000 or so. Has your income increased that much in the past few years?

RAM · Post by **RAM** » Mon May 12, 2008 9:09 am

Didn't suggest we should feel guilty. Just stated some facts. Don't give a rat's butt what other people think about my driving habits. I'm going after red fish on the fly rod on the Gulf this week. Truce! Will give you a report later-unless global warming sends an early hurricane!
Bad Bob

What NBC,CBS, and ABC didn't tell you

What NBC,CBS, and ABC didn't tell you

Guilty

CONFUSED !!