Thanks to Larry Southwick, a Ph.D. economist who notes, "You are way low on the gasoline taxes. In NY (Buffalo), the excise tax is $0.239 per gallon, the U.S. Gov't. excise tax is $0.184 per gallon, and there is currently an 8.75 percent sales tax on the whole thing. If gasoline retails for $3.000, that implies a price of $2.336 before the combined tax, or 66.4 cents per gallon. Note that property taxes, profits taxes, and employment taxes have not been included here but are certainly important to the suppliers. Out of the final price, governments take directly 22.15%." The Uninvited Ombudsman again regrets the error (16 cents less than this calculation). (See Oil Company Gouging.)
Mr. Southwick goes on to point out, "From the Exxon annual report (2005), sales amounted to $370,680,000,000. From this, the after tax net was $36,130,000,000 or 9.75%. The taxes paid directly by Exxon were: excise $30,742,000,000, other taxes & duties $41,554,000,000, and income taxes $23,302,000,000. These add up to 25 79% of Exxon's revenues. Who is the exploiter?" The Uninvited Ombudsman had questioned the "news" media's burning concern that oil companies make between 8-10% profit, and failed to note that the government takes two-and-a-half-times more than the company earns.
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