This article was first published on the Earth Track blog (October 13, 2022)
Texas’ Tax Exemptions & Tax Incidence report is missing the largest individual tax break to oil and gas in the state. This provision reduced taxes on the industry by $1 billion in 2022 according to analysis by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts that was provided in response to a public records request by Earth Track. The revenue losses from this provision are far larger than all other tax subsidies to fossil fuel production that the state does report on. It’s omission results from the way the authorizing legislation requiring tax expenditure reporting is worded. Specifically, large exemptions from smaller tax bases can be excluded, even if they result in large losses to Texas taxpayers. Whether this reporting loophole was created intentionally or by accident, it should be fixed. As shown here, the effect has been to exclude disclosure from the sections of the tax code that are most important to natural gas producers.
Read the full article here.