First in Punchbowl News: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) is renewing his push to get oil and gas drillers some relief from the corporate alternative minimum tax that became law in 2022.
Lankford is dropping his bill that would allow big corporations subject to the tax to consider intangible drilling costs in their adjusted financial statement income. It would give those energy companies a breather from the 15% minimum tax Democrats created in their Inflation Reduction Act.
There’s Republican interest in scrapping the minimum tax entirely, but there may not be the budget space to do that in reconciliation. A House Budget Committee menu of GOP reconciliation options estimated that getting rid of the AMT provision would cost $222 billion over 10 years. Lankford has been floating his bill as a way to at least boost oil and gas, a focus for the GOP. It would likely be a lower-cost option.
