Letters to the Editor
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Belorussian Accounting, here we come!
Frost suggests: Make it against the law for oil companies to pass the price of the windfall profits tax on to consumers, and then audit the oil companies' books. It is not a difficult accounting exercise to tax excess profits above a certain gross percentage per barrel of oil, or gallon of gas.
This sounds an awful lot like accounting in Belarus. Looney Tunes. Trust me, it was absolutely Looney Tunes. And hopelessly inefficient.
When you enact a tax, companies read the rules and do their best to avoid it. If this causes them to change their accounting procedures in stupid ways, they'll do it.
In short, this suggestion is just another way to score points with voters who know nothing about economics or accounting.