the oil "subsidy" obama used to refer to as unfair and to be done away with, without naming are the depletion allowance and idc
Originally Posted by nevergaveitathought
Come on. Don’t you know the government lays claim to everything, and you should be content with whatever crumbs it leaves in your hands? You didn’t build that business, the government did. That’s the logic behind calling percentage depletion and IDC’s subsidies.
As you know neither is a subsidy. Yes the percentage depletion allowance is a tax loophole. Maybe intangible drilling costs too. The argument for IDC’s is that they have no salvage value, unlike pumps, tubing, surface equipment etc., so they should be deducted the year they are incurred instead of depreciated and deducted over a period of years.
In any event oil companies pay severance tax, which is like a tax loophole in reverse. It’s a tax other companies don’t have to pay. And the cost of severance taxes exceeds the benefit of percentage depletion and IDC’s.
In other words, Obama was full of it when he considered these subsidies. They’re not. They’re complications in the tax code.