OCPA Economist Blasts OPI For Pushing Soros-Funded Data
OPI ATTACK OF DEVON ENERGY NOT BASED ON FACTS
May 10, 2017
By Steve Anderson, CPA and Jonathan Small, CPA
The Oklahoma Policy Institute (OPI) recently attacked Oklahoma-based Devon Energy, accusing the corporation of a windfall of profits and avoiding Oklahoma corporate income taxes. Here is the statement that OPI released:
“Number for the day 0.3%—Effective state corporate income tax paid by Devon Energy in (sic) from 2008 to 2015. Over that period, the company made $21.76 billion in profits but paid only $71 million in corporate income taxes, more than $1.2 billion less than if the company paid Oklahoma’s official corporate income tax rate of 6%.”
OPI cites the analysis of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a hard-left and George Soros-funded organization that has a long history of misrepresentation.
Apart from the issue of using phony data, OPI, who is actively engaged in trying to move Oklahoma’s tax code in a significantly more liberal direction and raise taxes by more than $1.4 billion annually, appears to be unaware of how companies are taxed. OPI appears to not realize that state income taxes are paid in the state where the income is earned.
It is well known that Devon has holdings in several states, as well as an extensive operation in Canada. In the United States, their largest area of oil and gas production was the Barnett Shale in Texas followed by the Eagle Ford in Texas. Only recently has Devon made a decision to expand operations in the Oklahoma Anadarko Basin, expanding their production beyond the 9% of total production prior to that in Oklahoma.
Commerce-aware Oklahomans know that Devon had significant operations outside the state. Even if the data for the study was correct, this fact alone renders OPI’s statement misleading. Oklahoma will never have a right to charge corporate income tax on corporate income that wasn’t earned in Oklahoma and is subject to another state’s taxing jurisdiction.