Kristina Cook Marilyn, in answer to your questions: In 2011, the big 3 oil companies (Exxon, Chevron and Conoco) paid collectively a total of $55.3 billion in taxes. They were the 3 biggest taxpayers in the country (according to Forbes), and further, had far and away the highest effective tax rates of the top 25 taxpayers, averaging 44% among the three of them. (No other entries in the top 25 broke a 40% effective rate.) The sector employs about 9 million Americans. The other point that should be made is that looking at profits in terms of absolute numbers is misleading - you must also look at profit margins, the percent of net revenue that winds up as profit. Big oil averaged about 6.5% from 2006 to 2010 (again, according to Forbes): This pales in comparison to profit margins in just about every other industry. The pharmaceutical industry, for example, routinely averages a profit margin of about 16%. The soft drink market is even more lucrative. At the gas tank integrated oil companies make about 7 cents per gallon. Meanwhile, the government extracts more than 48 cents, on average, per gallon. Thats right: Uncle Sam takes nearly seven times more out of drivers wallets via taxation than Big Oil.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 17:29:31 +0000