Evil Exxon-Mobil.

Some politician [I am supposed to know his name, but this is a stock blog and not politico.com] immediately pounced on Evil Exxon-Mobil's $11.68 Billion in profits, and deemed that they needed to be taxed to the fullest extent. So, I had to investigate.

This is what I found. Exxon-Mobil had a pre-tax income of $22.2 Billion. They paid $10.5 Billion in taxes on the pre-tax income - for after tax profits of 11.7 Billion. Yes, $11.7 Billion is a lot of money. So, I dug in further. What about sales based taxes ? They paid $9.5 Billion [in addition to the $10.5 Billion on income]. What about excise taxes - they paid $12.3 Billion in excise taxes. In total, the $11.68 Billion was 8.5% of their revenues of $138 Billion for the quarter. Nice numbers, but let's see - the tax man got $10.5+12.3+9.5 = $32.3 Billion.

Since I am not rich [enough] yet, I want to eat the rich too - yeah tax the SOB's. But in the case of Exxon-Mobil, that would be tantamount to killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Flog the goose dear politician - do not kill it please. Not yet. You might think you don't need them, but $32.3 Billion says you do.

Bapcha