Archive Report
Archive Report
Controversy Over Oil Industry Profits
Record Income in Time of High Gasoline Prices
Oil and taxes—two subjects which most Americans would prefer not having to worry about—are suddenly uppermost in many people's minds as the nation approaches the April 15 income tax filing deadline in the midst of a gasoline shortage. That coincidence may help bring about the first changes in oil taxation in nearly five years, and perhaps the first substantial changes in nearly fifty years. Citizens who find themselves paying higher taxes have read or heard that major oil companies earned extraordinarily high 1973 profits on which they will pay traditionally low taxes. Demands for action focusing on the federal government have become so strong that, in the words of Business Week magazine: “Today, ...