BP oil spill to cost U.S. taxpayer almost $10 billion

[jerker]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66Q1FW20100727

BP oil spill to cost U.S. taxpayer almost $10 billion

(Reuters) - Oil giant BP said it plans to offset the entire cost of its Gulf of Mexico oil spill against its tax bill, reducing future contributions to U.S. tax coffers by almost $10 billion.

The US has to pay for 1/3rd of the cost of the oil spill? lol

[Sekke]

The way I understand it, and I might be wrong, is that if BP agreed to pay say $30 Billion they have to pay tax on that money, so it comes out to quite a bit more than $30 Billion. This just means they won't be paying taxes on $10 Billion of what they're paying back. IMO they should have to pay way more, but from what I've read, this doesn't equal "taxpayers paying for the oil spill" like people claim.

[Bibdy]

Yeah, this looks like twisting of the facts to jump on the bandwagon and get some site hits.

They made less money, because of all of the costs of the oil spill, and thus pay less income tax on what they made, to the tune of $10B.

[jerker]

That makes sense. Blame the media for trying to sensationalizing it!