Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Gasoline Taxes vs. Profits

After crude oil costs, gasoline taxes are the second largest contributor to the price paid at the pump. Together Federal and State excise taxes on fuel account for an average cost of approximately 62 cents per gallon. That's a combined tax of about 20% per gallon of gas.

The federal tax per gallon is 18.4 cents per gallon,
see the history of federal gasoline taxes here, and the state tax per gallon varies by state, see the complete list of state gasoline taxes here.

Average profit per gallon of gas for oil companies: 10 cents according to the EIA.

Quote: The government collects far more in taxes on every gallon of gasoline than the oil companies collect in profits. If oil company profits are "obscene," as some politicians claim, are the government's taxes PG-13?

~Thomas Sowell

11 Comments:

At 5/23/2007 1:26 PM, Blogger jomama said...

It would be nice to see where the
rest goes, but, yea, point taken.

Hardly anyone knows this so I'm
going to post it too.

 
At 5/23/2007 1:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Look at where you are getting your data from http://www.conocophillips.com/newsroom/other_resources/energyanswers/oil_profits.htm
Get a non biased source.

 
At 5/23/2007 1:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

you fail to point out that taxes are a relatively stable cost--the amount of taxes isn't fluctuating wildly from one day to the next. in fact, the price of crude oil has dropped recently, yet we've seen the largest single-day spike in at-the-pump prices in decades. you could blame refining capacity, but unless we've suddenly LOST refineries somewhere, it would seem that's a lame duck argument as well.

 
At 5/23/2007 1:56 PM, Blogger Mark J. Perry said...

For profits per gallon in 2007, let me refer to George Will's article in the Washington Post (I assume they do fact-checking):click here.

“While oil companies make about 13 cents on a gallon of gasoline, the federal government makes 18.4 cents (the federal tax) and California's various governments make 40.2 cents (the nation's third-highest gasoline tax). Pelosi's San Francisco collects a local sales tax of 8.5 percent -- higher than the state's average for local sales taxes.”

Profits of 10 cents per gallon were for 2006, according to the government report, which was cited by Conoco.

 
At 5/24/2007 6:23 AM, Blogger juandos said...

Someone who's parents named him or her, 'anonymous' whines: "Look at where you are getting your data from http://www.conocophillips.com/newsroom/other_resources/energyanswers/oil_profits.htm
Get a non biased source
"

Pray tell what is your definition of a non-biased source of info?

Are you one of those socialist types that believes in government issued data or do you swing all the way over to one of the barking moonbat outfits that has Luddite like philosophy towards all energy use in general?

Consider what the Department of Energy puts out on a monthly basis:

Energy Information Administration's Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update where you'll see that for the month of April that taxman on average nationally, 14% of the cost of a gallon of gasoline was for taxes...

The American Petroleum Institute shows has a MAP that shows gasoline taxes (cents per gallon) by state... You'll note that states in thrall to the libtards pay considerably more than those not run by them....

 
At 5/29/2007 11:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Can we sue the federal government for price gouging?

 
At 5/14/2008 3:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmm,

Is that 10 cent profit before or after taxes? If before, then the real profit to the big, bad, greedy oil company is about 4 cents.

 
At 5/14/2008 6:13 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just remembered. The big, bad, greedy corporation is a legal fiction. Somebody (stockholders) own that corporation.

So, since dividends and increase in equity are also taxed, the profit to a genuine living greedy human being is about 2 cents per gallon.

 
At 5/28/2008 3:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What IS fluctuating wildly from day to day, is the PRICE of a barrel of oil (somewhere around $125.00 more or less).

The PRICE of this crude oil is based on the U.S. Dollar - so, as the Dollar loses value (world-wide), the COST (in U.S. Dollars) for the SAME barrel of oil GOES UP (all other things being equal).

If SUPPLY increases or DEMAND decreases, then the VALUE (the cost) of a barrel of oil goes down.

While I don't operate a gas station, if I did, and I saw that the price of oil increased (on the futures market), I'd sure as hell raise the price I charge for the gas in my tanks, knowing that I have to purchase more gas down the road (which will be made using that more expensive crude oil).

On the other hand, if crude oil prices (again, on the futures market) goes DOWN, I'm not going to reduce the price I charge below what I had to pay for the gallons in my tanks (I'm not going to LOSE money on the gas I already purchased).

 
At 7/12/2008 3:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with anonymous on getting information from someplace other than ConocoPhillips. I've searched the EIA for such information, and it's nowhere to be found. That graph isn't representative of EIA's graphs and charts.

In response to Mr. Perry, George Will was a conservative opinion writer for the Washington Post. Opinions aren't always fact-checked, and he provided no source for his information in that article (per typical Conservative journalistic standards).

Juandos, a non-biased source would be some entity outside of the oil industry. You also didn't address the question as to how much profit oil companies made, and instead talk only of taxes. Anonymous' comments were about the link alleging a mere 10 cent per gallon profit. As such, you should have stayed on topic.

The truth is that none of you has the means of gauging how much money Big Oil makes on a gallon of gas. I can tell you from an unbiased source that the industry is making around 8%: http://www.api.org/statistics/earnings/upload/earnings_perspective.pdf I can also tell you that refining and marketing sectors of the oil industry are experiencing decreasing revenues while oil producers are making revenue gains: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/perfpro/news_m/index.html As such it seems reasonable that escalating crude prices are what drives Big Oil's profits. The industry is learning not to produce too much in order to keep demand high.

 
At 12/06/2008 6:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

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