[Under the U.S. tax code, oil and gas companies can defer billions of dollars in taxes by maintaining elevated levels of spending. That is partly by design. Drilling new oil and gas wells is capital intensive, and thanks to a provision in the 2009 stimulus bill, energy companies can use what is known as “bonus depreciation” to write off all depreciation in a single year, as opposed to spreading it out over future tax cycles. The intended effect was to incentivize spending – to allow companies to earn immediate cash from producing wells and use that revenue to drill subsequent wells. Meanwhile, the country’s energy production receives a boost. But Taxpayers for Common Sense sees something more nefarious. True, the companies theoretically have to eventually pay those tax bills, but in reality, the group argues, the tax incentives amount to a huge subsidy. By taking all the tax benefits upfront, energy companies don’t have to pay interest on billions of dollars in taxes that are pushed off to some point in the future. “Often, in their financial statements, these companies tout how they finance their exploration and development investments with cash flow from operations. Yet, many have significant deferred tax liabilities. In effect, these companies are financing significant parts of their business with interest-free loans from U.S. taxpayers [emphasis in the original],” the report says. Through the various peculiarities of the tax code, oil and gas companies already pay a much lower effective tax rate than the statutory 35 percent. ExxonMobil for example, paid a 19.3 percent effective tax rate between 2009 and 2013. But by deferring taxes, oil and gas companies can wind up paying even less than that. But the heady days of drilling might be drawing to a close. The bonus depreciation allowance expired at the end of 2013 (although Congress is considering partially reinstating it). And although taxes can be deferred, energy companies will have to eventually pay their bill. Also, much of the debt-fueled spending has been built on the back of low interest rates. With the economy improving, the Federal Reserve will soon end its program of extraordinary asset purchases, perhaps leading to a period of higher interest rates. This could dramatically raise the cost of drilling. But more importantly, when oil and gas production stops rising, heavily indebted energy companies could face a day of reckoning.]
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 23:56:15 +0000
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