Getting a handle on oil company profits

[LINK] Locus Medius

With so many parties having an agenda to push, it's very difficult to sort out the unmudified [as W might say] facts.

You just can't take any one source at face value.

The VP of Public Affairs for Exxon Mobil [XOM] claims the company paid more taxes than it made in US profits in the first quarter:

Total earnings: $8.4 billion

U.S. earnings: $2.3 billion

U.S. tax incurred: $3.7 billion

Until I see verification from an independent source, I'm going to assume that's some kind of accounting shell game as well.

He claims XOM made only 9.7% profit.

Having worked for DuPont when it owned Conoco, I know oil companies get all kinds of allowances on their taxes. DuPont, the largest chemical company in the world, had an Army of accountants looking for every tax break, and never actually paid ANY taxes.  But, it did show a large "reserve for taxes" in its P&L statement, which made it's reported profit look much more reasonable, and enabled it to keep more cash in reserve, rather than paying it out to stockholders in dividends.

There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. Then, there's accounting.