Originally Posted by
HSLD
I was listening to a contrarian point of view yesterday and the individual suggested that because of a very expensive operation (just west of Iran) the US government actually benefits from expensive oil. The argument was that the tax rate on Gas and similar oil products is at round %30. So, higher prices yield higher gross revenue from taxes according to him.
Yes, oil companies pay 41% of their pretax profits back to the US government. Exxon alone paid well over 30 Billion dollars in those taxes in 2007. The government is not about to cap oil company profits.
I don't pay taxes in Europe, but I'll bet higher gasoline prices there are due in large part to higher Government taxes.