Executive Summary
President Obama’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2015 Budget of the U.S. Government includes $97 billion in tax increases on the American oil and natural gas industry as well the repeal of several provisions specific to the oil and gas industry through the elimination of existing Fossil Fuel Preferences.
Furthermore, the elimination of Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) accounting standards will greatly diminish the oil and gas industry’s ability to pay comparatively less taxes on recently added inventory items that are more expensive than previously added inventory.
As a real-world example of the financial impact of the Proposed 2015 U.S. Fiscal Budget, two after-tax cash models were developed and evaluated based on a hypothetical drilling
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$74 was determined to be the before-tax breakeven selling price per barrel under the current tax rules. Applying the proposed changes, the breakeven selling price per barrel was determined to be $92. This clearly indicates that the proposed changes are not favorable to the oil and gas industry and pose a great risk to the financial health of the American oil and gas industry.
Current Tax Laws
Investors in oil and gas drilling programs seek a return on their investment through revenues produced by the wells drilled and through tax benefits associated with such drilling and production.
Tax Benefits Available to Investors
Presently there are numerous tax benefits enjoyed by investors in oil, the purpose of which are to encourage oil and gas production on American lands, discourage dependence on foreign oil and also to create and maintain well-paying jobs in the industry. These benefits allow companies drilling wells and developing production property to determine whether they should capitalize or deduct certain expenditures. Capitalized costs of equipment or leasehold interests are recovered through either depreciation (in the case of equipment or building) or depletion (in the case of the leasehold interest). At present, deductible expenses
When using the LIFO method, if sales are higer than current purchases inventory not sold may be liquidated. This is called LIFO liquidation. The effect of the LIFO liquidation on the Harnischfeger’s income statement is an increase in net income by $2.4 million or $.20 in fiscal year 1984. There is no income tax effect. On the balance sheet there is a decrease of inventory, due to liquidation.
The total U.S. budget deficit for this year is estimated to be $514 billion, compared to $1.4 trillion in 2009 (The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2014 to 2024, 2014). Over the last few years, the federal budget deficit has declined, and is projected to continue to decline this year and leading into 2015 (The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2014 to 2024, 2014).
Louisiana lawmakers thought they were about $30 million short of closing a $940 million deficit in the budget cycle ending June 30, especially following the Senate 's approval in March of House-passed legislation to apply the state 's sales and use tax to tangible personal property and other previously exempt items such as manufacturing equipment. But updated fiscal information appeared to indicate the state deficit to be in the range of $70 million. Edwards 's veto of some $4.4 million worth of cuts made the hole even deeper for the current fiscal year -- and widened it to a projected $750 million next year.
e LIFO cost flow method of inventory costing (Martin, J. R.). From Harry Davis’ article, a search for alternatives of the base stock method started, because of the base stock method was no longer apply to the income tax purposes, the acceptance of LIFO by professional groups represents the last part its early development. If the idea of LIFO was not being permitted, there will be a huge loss on the development of the accounting tools. Nobody will know that there is a method of inventory management could help company for the tax purpose. According to Steven Bragg’s article, nowadays, the LIFO method is not applying for IFRS. Although IRS allows the LIFO method, but it must apply for all parts of the financial reports (July, 2017). The Treasury claimed that is hard for them to management and regulate the information if LIFO were applied to a large group of people that using LIFO for the tax purposes. Congress compensated some industries with LIFO, because some of industries was unsuccessful in getting the internal revenue service to recognize of their business practices. The hearings for the 1938 Revenue Act indicate that LIFO was considered appropriate only under the conditions listed
The Federal budget for the United States is a very important part of what the president must put together every year so every department in the government can know what they will be able to spend in the upcoming year. Government spending generally exceeds the budget put in place which is why America is so far into debt, the good thing about the budget is that about 21% of it goes back into the economy. The fiscal policy is how the government spending and taxation influence the economy based on what goods and services are purchased or the taxes collected.
The federal budget is one of the biggest political debates in Washington, D.C. Every year, the President and Congress debate over how much money should be allocated to certain areas of the budget to effectively manage the country. The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 requires the President to submit the budget to Congress for each fiscal year. The federal budget includes funding request for all federal executive departments and independent agencies.
Therefore, by calculating an increased or a decrease which would be calculated by subtracting $1587 from $1,629, the LIFO reserve at the end of year 2012 would be $42 million. Therefore, the LIFO reserve has increased by $ 42 million from the year 2011 to 2012. The increase in the LIFO reserve means that the amount of cost of goods sold valued in the LIFO method is greater than the cost of good valued in the FIFO Method despite the fact that LIFO had reduced in the year 2012. According to Porter (2013) when the LIFO method indicates that the amount of the cost of goods sold is higher than in the cost of goods sold in the FIFO method, the prices are rising as the last acquired inventories are sold first as per the LIFO method.
The exception to that incremental approach is that all items (for example, discontinued operations, other comprehensive income, and so forth) be considered in determining the amount of tax benefit that results from a loss from continuing operations and that shall be allocated to continuing operations. That modification of the incremental approach is to be consistent with the approach in Subtopic 740-10 to consider the tax consequences of taxable income expected in future years in assessing the realizability of deferred tax assets. Application of this modification makes it appropriate to consider a gain on discontinued operations in the current year for purposes of allocating a tax benefit to a current-year loss from continuing
But it’s not just up to the President which is why it’s so hard to come to an agreement. During the Clinton era, Clinton proposed to increase Federal spending by 4 percent, to $1.73 trillion, to hire 100,000 new teachers, provide adequate child care, boost scientific research and offer monitored tax incentives. Effects of a large tax increase that Clinton pushed for in his first year are made prominent. For the most part, it fell entirely on upper income taxpayers and the wealthy people in our society. Clintons 1994 budget also contained some spending restraints. The cuts allowed the economy to boom and there were bigger gains in the stock market business that made people happy (Bennett,1998). The new budget brought in hundreds of millions in unexpected tax revenue from taxes on capital gains and rapidly rising salaries (Jackson,2008). Although this was a good plan, it unfortunately did not get approved. The budget was balanced but some say not by Clinton. He was merely just a bystander and gave his opinion as the time passed. Even though the budget was balanced while he was in office, but the record shows that was about the extent of his contribution (Moore, 1998). Clinton may have tried to contribute but he should not be given all of the credit. Others have credited George Bush. Political analyst Bill Schneider declared on CNN that Bush is one of “the real heroes” for his ability to raise taxes (Moore,
The federal budget deals with the funding for each fiscal year. This budget set spending limits to allocate funding for specific federal funding. The budget provides data on financing of the government, receipt and surplus for different periods. There is a degree of complication when it comes to the budget but the best way to understand it is to verify what’s in the budget. According to the authors, the budget can contain expenditure control which provide payments for goods and services, management resources is an area where the organizations develops resources and planning for future allocation” (Lee, Johnson and Joyce 2013, 187). The various agencies will have information showing the different allocation within their budget. Agencies such as the Office of Management and Budget and the Government Accountability Office provides data and analysis. For example, “these agencies help determine strengths and weaknesses of programs, and assist in allocating resources in the budgetary process” (Lee, Johnson and Joyce 2013, 187).
It is projected In fiscal year 2015, that the federal government will spend around $3.9 trillion. When measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) it will make up 21 percent of the U.S. economy. According the U.S. Treasury, resource allocation is categorized in three areas: Mandatory Spending, Discretionary Spending and interest paid on
In 1973, the United States government restricted the export of domestically produced crude oil. At the time, this was largely regarded as a sound decision. Not only was domestic production in a decline, but the global political climate was fundamentally inhospitable. However, in recent years, the oil and gas industry has exploded into a huge upswing, due in no small part to the evolving technologies surrounding hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Between 2009 and 2013, crude oil production in the United States increased by roughly 2.1 million barrels per day and, according to ICF estimates, is projected to increase another 3.2 million barrels per day through 2020 (ICF International 2014). This has led to a high profile discussion regarding the removal of the export ban which peaked in October of this year when President Barack Obama stood firm against repealing the ban, even threatening to veto the bill completely, despite the House of Representatives voting to pass it. With domestic oil and gas production at an all-time high, continuing with the ban makes little economic sense, and this report will further explain the belief behind why the ban should be repealed and why it would make a positive impact on independent exploration and production companies.
The US spent 699 billion dollars to subsidize the fossil-fuel sector in 2015. The removal of fossil-fuel subsidy will enormously benefit energy markets, strengthen climate change policy and government budgets.
During the last few years, the people of the United States have spent money excessively when and where spending was unnecessary. The excess spending has resulted in the current recession. The economy went into recession when the price of gasoline increased to four or five dollars a gallon in 2008. A way to offset the recession would be to expand drilling in the United States. The Energy Information Administration estimates the amount of oil in the Bakken Formation alone at 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels. Drilling for oil domestically is not only viable but also, it is beneficial to the United States because it will reduce reliance on foreign oil, provide fuel at a cheaper cost, and create jobs for American citizens.
LIFO stands for last-in, first-out, meaning that the most recently purchased items are recorded as sold first. Since the 1970s, U.S. companies have tended to use LIFO, which reduces their income taxes in times of inflation.[1]