Report: “Windfall Profit” Taxes Fall Short

As the U.S. Senate this week holds hearings on the misguided idea of a "windfall profits" tax on the oil industry profits, it would do well to include a new analysis from the Tax Foundation that looks at the failure of President Jimmy Carter’s Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act. That law was projected to raise $320 billion but only actually raised $80 billion. More importantly, random and punitive acts of taxation ordered by the whim of Congress and public opinion are never a good idea.

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