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Maureen O’Hara’s Ill Fated Cuban Oil Tax Shelter

Maureen O’Hara’s Ill Fated Cuban Oil Tax Shelter

The top marginal rate in those days was 91%.  A big attraction of oil as an investment was the percentage depletion deduction.  What is great about percentage depletion is that you can keep deducting even after you have recovered your cost, which is why owning a gold mine is like owning a gold mine ,  while owning an oil well can be even better.  Percentage depletion for oil wells was 27.5% of revenue limited to 50% of net income from the property.  And this was before they started with all those silly alternative minimum tax things and passive activity loss rules were not even on the horizon.

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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.