Another tax item:

For many years the IRS has allowed the majors to count royalties paid to a foreign government as taxes and deduct them dollar-for-dollar from their US tax obligation. This allows them to shelter their profits from petrochemicals, refining and convenience store sales, so they owe less tax than any other competing businesses who do not have foreign oil operations.

Its purposely confusing, like much of the tax code. My thought is that the first 25% of the gross product sales is in fact a royalty, and should be deducted from the gross sales, but any percentage over 25% is a tax paid to a foreign government and should be deducted dollar-for-dollar from their US tax obligation.

The last item is a basic issue of equity in the tax code in general. Congress has allowed companies to move their headquarters overseas where their operations dodge taxes. We need an alternative minimum tax for all overseas operations set at 20% of their gross US sales. If they have a problem with that, let them move back to the US and file a regular, audited tax return or not do business in America if they refuse. And, thst include foreign multinationals. They need to do 100% of their US business from a US subsidiary where their profits are transparent.

Bob Ebersole