Why do we allow companies to have any profit at all?
Independence, MO — If a company makes a profit, doesn’t that mean that it charged more than it should have for its products?
This fiscal year ending Sept. 30, our federal government will pay out $2.2 trillion just for safety net and interest expenses, 97 percent of its total intake. The government needs money so shouldn’t we just raise taxes on companies that have excess profits?
Speaking of excess profits, everyone knows that gasoline prices are too high. Exxon Mobil had revenue of $424 billion in the past year and almost $38 billion was left over after interest, taxes and depreciation. What good is that doing society?
Exxon Mobil pays $9.1 billions of that net profit to its shareholders as a dividend, $1.88 per year per share, amounting to 24 percent. Almost half of its shareholders are institutions like pension plans, universities and other foundations. That might be doing some good.
In 2009 , the oil company paid $7.7 billion in U.S. taxes but no federal income tax. Why? It paid more than $15 billion of income tax to other countries where it gets its oil. Worldwide Exxon paid $78.6 billion in total taxes before we see any leftover profit. Nigeria makes out pretty well since it charges up to 85 percent of profit from its Exxon Mobil oil production.
If Exxon could pump more oil in the U.S., our government would get more income and other taxes. Since oil pumped and sold is gone, the behemoth looks for new oil everywhere. A few years ago, it and Norwegian Statoil began exploring in a new, deeper area of the Gulf of Mexico. It can only do that after paying the U.S. government for permits. The Department of the Interior now claims Exxon Mobil abandoned three of its five permits when it requested a short suspension of activity to upgrade its equipment for new safety technology and was a little slow in signing new contracts with Chevron as a new partner.
Oh, did I mention that the finding is estimated to be a billion or more barrels of oil? Or that the exploration had already cost $300 million (that came from profit leftover from previous years and sales)? Exxon is ready to start but our government has stopped Gulf drilling by regulation. The rigs have begun to be moved to Brazil and Africa.
There is a new steel plant in Youngstown, Ohio, already producing drill pipe for our domestic production. Perhaps it could make steel for something else, but I don’t know what.
Exxon Mobil will begin paying about $10 billion in royalties and taxes to the federal government if and when it can get started on the Julia field. In the meantime, it has sued the government over its alleged snatching of the three permits. That should be successful, but lawsuits are anything but cheap. So there goes more of that leftover profit.
I wonder how smaller companies fare in fights with the government. Our U.S. government has lots of lawyers and all the time in the world. Does this type of thing have anything to do with businesses stockpiling money instead of pushing ahead, taking initiative and hiring new workers?
By Ron Finke, special to the Examinerhttp://www.examiner.net/business/x549428708/Finke-Profit-is-not-a-dirty-word
