Exxon's 2007 Tax Bill: $30 Billion

[roo_ster]

Over the last three years, Exxon Mobil has paid an average of $27 billion annually in taxes. That's $27,000,000,000 per year, a number so large it's hard to comprehend. Here's one way to put Exxon's taxes into perspective.

According to IRS data for 2004, the most recent year available:

Total number of tax returns: 130 million

     Number of Tax Returns for the Bottom 50%: 65 million

     Adjusted Gross Income for the Bottom 50%: $922 billion

     Total Income Tax Paid by the Bottom 50%: $27.4 billion

Conclusion: In other words, just one corporation (Exxon Mobil) pays as much in taxes ($27 billion) annually as the entire bottom 50% of individual taxpayers, which is 65,000,000 people! Further, the tax rate for the bottom 50% is only 3% of adjusted gross income ($27.4 billion / $922 billion), and the tax rate for Exxon was 41% in 2006 ($67.4 billion in taxable income, $27.9 billion in taxes).

Obviously, we need to raise taxes on the bottom 50% of taxpayers.

[Jamisjockey]

But..But...Big Oil has been netting recort profits!! They must drop the price of oil!!!

 

[Azrael256]

They must drop the price of oil!!!

  Screw you, hippie! I want my dividends!

[K Frame]

I don't know about you, but I'm getting nearly 40 miles to the dividend...

[Leatherneck]

And who paid Exxon's share? You know--at the pump?

TC

[Brad Johnson]

And who paid Exxon's share? You know--at the pump?

TC

The people who keep choosing to buy more gas and not less.

Brad

[Paddy]

In other words, just one corporation (Exxon Mobil) pays as much in taxes ($27 billion) annually as the entire bottom 50% of individual taxpayers, which is 65,000,000 people!

Uh, don't look now, but corporations don't pay taxes.  They're just another cost of doing business that's passed through to their (in this case, captive) customers, IOW all of us.  Which still leaves Exxon Mobil with obscenely excessive profits, also at our expense.  So government wins, corporations win, and we get screwed.  It's a government/corporate partnership that would make Al Capone blush.

[Boomhauer]

The national, state, and local gov'ts took away plenty at the pump, too.

[Brad Johnson]

Which still leaves Exxon Mobil stockholders (i.e. you and I) with obscenely excessive profits, also at our expense.

There.  Fixed it for you.

Brad

[Fly320s]

I don't think that a 10% profit margin is obscene.

Do you?

[Boomhauer]

I don't think that a 10% profit margin is obscene.

Do you?

But...but....but....ITS WINDFALL PROFITS! ITS OBSCENE!
 

[French G.]

Yeah, let's take all of their money and then tell them to find us more oil so we can tax that too!

[Racehorse]

The tax system in the U.S. is completely screwed up.

[Iain]

Poor Exxon. Still got plenty of money to fund 'research' that isn't.

[SomeKid]

75% tax rates? I though corporations paid a little over a third?

[seeker_two]

In other words, just one corporation (Exxon Mobil) pays as much in taxes ($27 billion) annually as the entire bottom 50% of individual taxpayers, which is 65,000,000 people!

Uh, don't look now, but corporations don't pay taxes.  They're just another cost of doing business that's passed through to their (in this case, captive) customers, IOW all of us.  Which still leaves Exxon Mobil with obscenely excessive profits, also at our expense.  So government wins, corporations win, and we get screwed.  It's a government/corporate partnership that would make Al Capone blush.

...and don't forget all the grants and contracts and programs they get from the government that are tax-exempt.....

Al Capone would have bootlegged oil if he could have gotten that kind of deal....

[geronimotwo]

soooo... the gov has bought into oil....through taxes?

[roo_ster]

Why not?  They are even more tangled in tobacco.

[Azrael256]

75% tax rates? I though corporations paid a little over a third?

  Erm... no.  Exxon-Mobil's actual financials for '07 read more like:

Income before taxes: $70,474M
Provision for income tax: $29,864M
Net income: $40,610M

Profit is money left after all expenses, including taxes.  It's more like a 42% Tax bracket.  Still sucks.

[Ben]

SAN FRANCISCO, July 25  Apple on Wednesday reported a 73 percent jump in quarterly profit on strong sales of Macs and iPods, beating Wall Street forecasts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/business/26apple.html

Apple reported a 57 percent jump in first-quarter profit, but it also gave a forecast that missed analysts' estimates, sending shares down.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/22/AR2008012202359.html

If people like a company, "obscene profits" are A-OK (in fact, gosh, what a bummer when they only make a 57% profit). I have nothing against Apple -- more power to them for the money they've been making.

Pretty much every article I read on Exxon's latest profits, even from "left of mainstream" sources said that Exxon had record profits AND sales. People are buying more fuel than ever before. If you don't want to see a particular company make a profit, don't buy their product.