Mentre lotta contro una tassa, l’industria petrolifera raccoglie sussidi
L’industria petrolifera beneficia di miliardi di facilitazioni fiscali
● Dall’esame delle imposte americane risulta che la produzione petrolifera è uno dei settori che riceve i maggiori sussidi, con agevolazioni fiscali disponibili per quasi ogni fase del processo di esplorazione ed estrazione.
● [Da più recente “Studio dell’Ufficio per il bilancio del Congresso”, del 2005:] Gli investimenti di capitali in concessioni ed equipaggiamento per le trivellazioni sono gravati da un’imposta del 9%, contro il 25% vigente in generale per gli affari, e inferiori a qualsiasi altro settore industriale.
o Per molte società petrolifere medio-piccole, l’imposta sugli investimenti è talmente bassa che è più che compensata da vari crediti. I profitti sugli investimenti di queste società sono spesso maggiori dopo le tasse che al lordo.
o Tra i vari sussidi fiscali per il petrolifero il Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) [Credito di imposta volumetrico per l’etanolo], una manna per le società pari a 45 centesimi $ per gallone; nel 2005-2009 sono stati erogati 17MD$ di sussidi VEETC;
o nel 2008 BP avrebbe ricevuto circa $510mn di questi crediti; quest’anno sarebbero $600mn.
o Nel 20005, Clinton presidente: varata legge che sospese il pagamento delle royalty (Deepwater Royalty Relief Act) per le società le cui licenze di perforazione si dimostrino “non economicamente sostenibili” senza un aiuto. Le royalty dovute al governo sono spesso pari al 18,5% del volume di petrolio estratto. Diversi progetti di trivellazione nel Golfo del Messico hanno goduto di questa legge.
o Le facilitazioni fiscali per il petrolifero sono complessivamente di circa $4MD/anno;
o secondo il padronato del petrolifero queste facilitazioni sarebbero un affare per i contribuenti, dato che sostengono un settore che occupa 9,2 mn. salariati;
o secondo l’American Petroleum Institute (gruppo di pressione del settore) nel 2006-2008, anche calcolando i sussidi, i produttori petroliferi hanno pagato (o devono farlo) $280 MD di imposte sul reddito; pagherebbero l’aliquota di imposta sui redditi maggiori della maggior parte delle altre società americane
● L’industria petrolifera USA sta combattendo contro la proposta di legge del sen. democratico Menendez (NJ) che ridurrebbe di $20MD le facilitazioni dell’industria petrolifera nel prossimo decennio;
● Tuttavia la potenza economica del settore è rivelato fatto che la proposta di legge non tocca le agevolazioni per le raffinerie, molte delle quali operano ed hanno dipendenti nel New Jersey, lo stato di Menendez.
– Da uno studio del 2009 risulta che i prezzi petroliferi ed i profitti erano tanto alti che l’eliminazione dei sussidi ridurrebbe la produzione americana di meno dello 0,5%.
– Alcune delle facilitazioni risalgono a quasi un secolo fa’. In base ad una disposizione ancora valida prevista dal Tariff Act del 1913, le PMI petrolifere con sede negli USA possono chiedere deduzioni per la perdita di valore dei pozzi petroliferi sfruttati, per un ammontare molto maggiore di quanto pagano per i diritti.
– Altre facilitazioni hanno origine dalla politica internazionale:
o ad es., per impedire l’influenza sovietica in MO a metà anni 1950, il Dipartimento di Stato americano ha appoggiato una manovra di contabilità dell’Arabia Saudita che riclassificava le royalty imposte dai governi stranieri ai trivellatori americani, considerandole tasse, che davano il diritto alle società di detrarle dalle loro imposte americane.
o Nonostante vari tentativi di impedire tale pratica, le società continuano a dedurle, per un ammontare calcolato dal Tesoro americano di $8,2MD per il prossimo decennio.
– Nell’ultimo decennio le società petrolifere hanno utilizzato ampiamente paradisi fiscali;
– diverse piattaforme, come Deepwater Horizon, sono registrate a Panama o nelle Isole Marshall, cove godono di imposte più basse e regole meno rigide per sicurezza e personale.
– Per evitare le tasse Deepwater Horizon, che sta causando la peggiore fuoriuscita di petrolio in mare nella storia americana, ha la propria sede societaria nelle isole Marshall.
– Transocean – proprietario di Deepwater Horizon – (18 000 addetti) ha trasferito la sua sede societaria da Houston alle isole Cayman del 1999, poi in Svizzera nel 2008; dal 199 avrebbe risparmiato $1,8MD di tasse. In Svizzera nel 2009 ha potuto pagare solo il 16% dei suoi $4MD di entrate.
– BP intasca facilitazioni fiscali pari al 70% del noleggio della piattaforma di Deepwater Horizon [noleggiata fino al 2013], una deduzione di oltre $225 000/giorno, dall’inizio del contratto di noleggio.
– L’industria del petrolio e del gas, dal 2008, ha speso $340 mn. per l’opera di lobby (Center for Responsive Politics).
– Per il disastro nel Golfo del Messico avrebbe finora risarcito solo $144mn., lasciate senza risposta decine di migliaia di rivendicazioni di famiglie e piccole imprese. Calcolato in $3,12MD il costo finora del disastro Deepwater Horizon.
– ExxonMobil ha holding con sede nelle isole Bahamas, Bermuda e Cayman; nel 2009 non ha pagato nessuna imposta netta agli Usa.
– Nel 1998-2005, solo 2/3 gruppi USA hanno pagato tasse federali.
– Non è affatto certo che il Congresso eliminerà le facilitazioni fiscali nonostante lo scandalo del disastro ecologico: nel 2005, Bush presidente, ex petroliere, nonostante le richieste dell’opinione di porre fine agli incentivi a fronte di enormi profitti per le società petrolifere, venne varata una legge sull’energia che comprendeva $2,6 MD di sussidi per il petrolifero; nel 2007, coi Dem. al Congresso, fallì un tentativo in questo senso.
July 3, 2010
As Oil Industry Fights a Tax, It Reaps Subsidies
– When the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform set off the worst oil spill at sea in American history, it was flying the flag of the Marshall Islands. Registering there allowed the rig’s owner to significantly reduce its American taxes.
– The owner, Transocean, moved its corporate headquarters from Houston to the Cayman Islands in 1999 and then to Switzerland in 2008, maneuvers that also helped it avoid taxes.
– At the same time, BP was reaping sizable tax benefits from leasing the rig. According to a letter sent in June to the Senate Finance Committee, the company used a tax break for the oil industry to write off 70 percent of the rent for Deepwater Horizon — a deduction of more than $225,000 a day since the lease began.
– With federal officials now considering a new tax on petroleum production to pay for the cleanup, the industry is fighting the measure, warning that it will lead to job losses and higher gasoline prices, as well as an increased dependence on foreign oil.
● But an examination of the American tax code indicates that oil production is among the most heavily subsidized businesses, with tax breaks available at virtually every stage of the exploration and extraction process.
– According to the most recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, released in 2005, capital investments like oil field leases and drilling equipment are taxed at an effective rate of 9 percent, significantly lower than the overall rate of 25 percent for businesses in general and lower than virtually any other industry.
– And for many small and midsize oil companies, the tax on capital investments is so low that it is more than eliminated by various credits. These companies’ returns on those investments are often higher after taxes than before.
– “The flow of revenues to oil companies is like the gusher at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico: heavy and constant,” said Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, who has worked alongside the Obama administration on a bill that would cut $20 billion in oil industry tax breaks over the next decade. “There is no reason for these corporations to shortchange the American taxpayer.”
– Oil industry officials say that the tax breaks, which average about $4 billion a year according to various government reports, are a bargain for taxpayers. By helping producers weather market fluctuations and invest in technology, tax incentives are supporting an industry that the officials say provides 9.2 million jobs.
– The American Petroleum Institute, an industry advocacy group, argues that even with subsidies, oil producers paid or incurred $280 billion in American income taxes from 2006 to 2008, and pay a higher percentage of their earnings in taxes than most other American corporations.
As oil continues to spread across the Gulf of Mexico, however, the industry is being forced to defend tax breaks that some say are being abused or are outdated.
– The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday announced that it was investigating whether Transocean had exploited tax laws by moving overseas to avoid paying taxes in the United States.
o Efforts to curtail the tax breaks are likely to face fierce opposition in Congress; the oil and natural gas industry has spent $340 million on lobbyists since 2008, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which monitors political spending.
Jack N. Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, warns that any cut in subsidies will cost jobs.
– “These companies evaluate costs, risks and opportunities across the globe,” he said. “So if the U.S. makes changes in the tax code that discourage drilling in gulf waters, they will go elsewhere and take their jobs with them.”
– But some government watchdog groups say that only the industry’s political muscle is preserving the tax breaks. An economist for the Treasury Department said in 2009 that a study had found that oil prices and potential profits were so high that eliminating the subsidies would decrease American output by less than half of one percent.
– “We’re giving tax breaks to highly profitable companies to do what they would be doing anyway,” said Sima J. Gandhi, a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, a liberal research organization. “That’s not an incentive; that’s a giveaway.”
– Some of the tax breaks date back nearly a century, when they were intended to encourage exploration in an era of rudimentary technology, when costly investments frequently produced only dry holes. Because of one lingering provision from the Tariff Act of 1913, many small and midsize oil companies based in the United States can claim deductions for the lost value of tapped oil fields far beyond the amount the companies actually paid for the oil rights.
– Other tax breaks were born of international politics. In an attempt to deter Soviet influence in the Middle East in the 1950s, the State Department backed a Saudi Arabian accounting maneuver that reclassified the royalties charged by foreign governments to American oil drillers.
– Saudi Arabia and others began to treat some of the royalties as taxes, which entitled the companies to subtract those payments from their American tax bills. Despite repeated attempts to forbid this accounting practice, companies continue to deduct the payments. The Treasury Department estimates that it will cost $8.2 billion over the next decade.
– Over the last 10 years, oil companies have also been aggressive in using foreign tax havens. Many rigs, like Deepwater Horizon, are registered in Panama or in the Marshall Islands, where they are subject to lower taxes and less stringent safety and staff regulations. American producers have also aggressively exploited the tax code by opening small offices in low-tax countries. A recent study by Martin A. Sullivan, an economist for the trade publication Tax Analysts, found that the five oil drilling companies that had undergone these “corporate inversions” had saved themselves a total of $4 billion in taxes since 1999.
– Transocean — which has approximately 18,000 employees worldwide, including 1,300 in Houston and about a dozen in Zug, Switzerland — has saved $1.8 billion in taxes since moving overseas in 1999, the study found.
– Transocean said it had paid more than $300 million in taxes so far for 2009, and that its move reflected its global scope, with only 15 of its 139 rigs located in the United States. “Transocean is truly a global company,” it said in a statement.
– Despite the public anger at the gulf spill, it is far from certain that Congress will eliminate the tax breaks. As recently as 2005, when windfall profits for energy companies prompted even President George W. Bush — a former Texas oilman himself — to publicly call for an end to incentives, the energy bill he and Congress enacted still included $2.6 billion in oil subsidies.
– In 2007, after Democrats took control of Congress, a move to end the tax breaks failed.
– Mr. Menendez said he believed the Gulf spill was devastating enough to spur Congress into action. But one notable omission in his bill shows the vast economic reach of the industry. While the legislation would cut many incentives over the next decade, it would not touch the tax breaks for oil refineries, many of which have operations and employees in his home state, New Jersey.
– Mr. Menendez’s aides said the senator thought it was legitimate to allow refineries to continue claiming a manufacturing tax credit that he wants to eliminate for drillers because refining is a manufacturing business and because refineries do not benefit from high oil prices. Mr. Menendez did not consult with New Jersey refineries when writing the bill, his aides said.
Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)
Oil industry benefits from billions in tax breaks
– The oil industry is the beneficiary of extraordinary tax breaks and financial incentives, a Sunday report by the New York Times reveals. The report underscores the federal government’s role as guarantor of oil industry profits.
“Capital investments like oil field leases and drilling equipment are taxed at an effective rate of 9 percent,” according to the article, “significantly lower than the overall rate of 25 percent for businesses in general and lower than virtually any other industry.”
Indeed, for many oil companies, returns on capital investments are typically higher after taxes because the numerous write-offs and incentives granted to them are more than enough to make up for the taxes they owe on those investments.
As revealed in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee last month, BP was able to write off 70 percent of the rent it paid for the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, saving the company $225,000 per day since the lease went into effect.
– Among the numerous tax subsidies for oil companies currently on the books is the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC), granted to oil refining companies that blend ethanol into gasoline. The credit amounts to 45 cents per gallon and has proven a windfall for companies like BP.
– Seventeen billion dollars in VEETC subsidies were paid out to oil companies overall between 2005 and 2009. In 2008, BP would have received approximately $510 million in VEETC credits, and this year it stands to gain $600 million in credits.
– The Deepwater Royalty Relief Act of 1995, signed into law by President Clinton in 1995, suspends royalty payments for eligible companies whose drilling leases are determined not to be “economically viable” without “relief.” Royalty fees owed to the US government, often as 18.5 percent of the volume of oil extracted, are suspended entirely under the law in order to “relieve” the multi-billion dollar corporations and to encourage continued interest in offshore drilling in the US. Several drilling projects in the Gulf of Mexico have been granted royalty relief under the law.
– In addition to the extraordinary number of breaks granted to them by the US government, the oil companies find more ways to avoid taxes by relocating their headquarters outside the US. Transocean, the corporation which owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig rented by BP, relocated its headquarters from Delaware to the Cayman Islands in 1999 before ultimately setting up shop in Zug, Switzerland in 2008, all in an effort to avoid paying taxes. The move to Switzerland allowed the corporation to pay just 16 percent in taxes on its $4 billion income in 2009.
The Deepwater Horizon rig was itself officially registered with the Marshall Islands in order to avoid what little tax burden that might have been placed on its operations under US law.
– Such practices are common in the energy industry. ExxonMobil has holdings located in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands for the purpose of avoiding US taxes, and the oil giant paid no net US federal income tax in 2009. A 2008 study produced by the Government Accountability Office revealed that only two out of three US corporations paid federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005.
While representatives of the oil and energy industry claim that the removal of tax breaks and subsidies such as these will have a devastating effect on the industry and lead to widespread job loss, a 2009 report before a congressional hearing on “energy, natural resources and infrastructure” by Alan B. Krueger, the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief Economist for the US Treasury Department, refuted these assertions. “Based on estimates of short and long run supply elasticities,” said Krueger, “we estimate that the decrease in domestic production due to these proposals [to repeal existing subsidies] will be less than one half of one percent, even in the long run.”
The fact that the oil industry has received hundreds of billions in tax breaks and incentives over the past 15 years makes all the more glaring BP’s refusal to pay adequate compensation to victims of its criminal negligence in the Gulf.
– According to a BP spokesman, the company has only paid $144 million total to claimants across four Gulf states, while tens of thousands of claims have most likely not even been considered.
– Cannon Cochran Management Services, hired by the state of Louisiana to review the increasingly problematic claims process, found that in June compensation requests rose by 170 percent, from 30,000 claims to over 80,000 claims, even though the number of claims adjusters in place to handle the demand only increased by 87 percent, from 510 to 951.
Cannon Cochran found that on June 21, immediately following the state’s demand that BP speed up the compensation process, the oil giant mailed out 2,500 claims checks. Just a week later, the number of checks going out each day had decreased to under 500.
– Kristy Nichols, Louisiana’s Children and Family Services Secretary told the Associated Press, “This is extremely distressing; families and businesses are depending on those payments to keep roofs overhead and food on tables.” She added, “BP must immediately address its apparent inability to keep up with daily incoming claims and pay claimants in a timely manner.”
– On Monday, BP announced the total cost of the Deepwater Horizon disaster has now reached $3.12 billion. According to an official press release, this amount includes the “cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs.” But as cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico resume following a week of storms and rough seas caused by Hurricane Alex, reports continue to emerge which cast doubt on just how much of the $3 billion has really gone to workers and small business owners in need of compensation.
– In fact whatever BP has paid out it can count against the total sum it must contribute to the Obama administration’s Independent Claims Facility, which BP is to fund to the tune of about $20 billion over a four-year period (“neither a floor or ceiling,” according to the White House). In addition to claims, BP can specifically count against the fund “judgments and settlements, natural resource damage costs, and state and local response costs,” according to a White House fact sheet.
Kenneth Feinberg, selected to head the escrow account, has declared those “indirectly” affected by the oil spill will not be entitled to compensation. Among those not directly affected, according to Feinberg, are families whose homes have declined in value and tourism industry employers and workers who have suffered from the “perception” that their beaches have been destroyed.
Also not entitled to compensation will be fishermen who operate on a cash-only basis—a sizable share of the New Orleans fishing industry.
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