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Comment by legitster | Hacker News Reader

Nearly all of them? Except for the credits specifically for producing oil or the trade definition of crude oil.

LIFO is illegal in some countries but is acceptable under GAAP. The Oil industry is not special here.

Percentage depletion is the IRS standard for non-renewable resources. Again, oil is given the same percentage as copper: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/613

Passive loss exception is also standard: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc425

The IRS maintains a nicely detailed guide on how tax deductions work: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p535 Almost no one would say a business deducting COGS would be a "subsidy".

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How is that just "bookkeeping"? These are benefits that provide an actual tangible benefit to oil and gas companies. The fact that some of these subsidies are happening in other industries doesn't mean it's not a subsidy...

I mean, do you consider every tax deduction to be a subsidy? The standard deduction for all US families? Is paying anything less than 100% of income a subsidy?

The US government has a very established tax code to specifically determine what amount of money it should consider taxable and to smooth out expectations. Claiming a deduction is not inherently a subsidy. Especially if you are a business and might lose 3x as much money in a year as you make to invest in long term growth.

If Oil and Gas have unfair tax advantages, that's a problem. These seem boilerplate.

Subsidy:

> a sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive.

Yes, tax deductions (to businesses) are absolutely subsidies. It's the most common form of subsidization!

> Especially if you are a business and might lose 3x as much money in a year as you make to invest in long term growth.

This bill extends the amortization schedule from 24 months to 7 years. It's actually helping ease this burden. The rest of the clauses are removing what are essentially government handouts to oil and gas companies.

Unless they get a tax refund from it, it absolutely is not a sum of money granted to them.

In reality the government is simply just punishing all other businesses that can't take the same deductions.

You might as well consider it a subsidy to you if your neighbor gets mugged.

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