Monday, January 29, 2018

Richmond,VA-Based Dominion Resources Generated 4Q 2017 Net Income of $1.470 Bil, Up 199%, or Up $0.979 Bil From Their 4Q 2016 Net Income of $1.017 Bil ....................................................................................... Excluded in Their 4Q 2017 Earnings Was a Huge Amount of Tax Debt Forgiveness Granted By the Trump Tax Bill, and Completely Funded By US Taxpayers, To the Regulated Activities of Dominion Resources. Non-Utility Companies Have Properly Included Their Tax Debt Forgiveness Granted To Them as an Increase To Their 4Q 2017 Earnings. ....................................................................................... Logically and Fairly, Regulated Utilities Should Be Passing on all of Their Tax Debt Forgiveness To Their Utility Customers and Not in the Future But Currently, Just Like Large US Non-Utility Corps Are Getting This Same Tax Benefit Reflected in Their Earnings Currently. This Economic Gain to Utility Customers Has Absolutely Nothing To Do With Future Utility Customers and Everything To Do With the Regulated Utility Getting the Tax Benefit of These Past Huge Tax Writeoffs and Sharing None of Them With Past Utility Customers. With The Tax Debt Forgiveness, the Regulated Utility Should Do Its Best To Refund These Overpaid Utility Bills Paid By Past Utility Customers. Especially With the Financial Pressure of Their High Monthly Utility Bills on Their Personal Budgets, If They Don’t Get This Tax Benefit Passed On To Them Currently, Utility Customers Will Get Very Upset. Especially the Very Sick and Very Elderly Who Will Be Dying in Several Years Get Absolutely Shafted Here ........................................................................................ In Its 4Q 2017 Earnings Release, Dominion Resources Made This Comment ….. “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduced the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, effective 1/1/2018. Deferred taxes are required to be measured at the enacted rate in effect when they are expected to reverse. As a result, deferred taxes were re-measured to the 21% rate. For regulated entities, where the reduction in deferred taxes is expected to be recovered or refunded in future rates, the adjustment was recorded to a regulatory asset or liability instead of income tax expense.” There are two big problems with this comment from a fairness to Utility customer’s perspective. First, the Utility should be paying the past Utility customers for their past overpayment of utility bills, not future ones. And second, the fact that it is asserted that this Tax Debt Forgiveness Windfall will be recovered or refunded in future utility rates is pure fantasy. The Utility Rate Approval Process is very politicized and has many subjective aspects to it. And there are so many computations in it that this Tax Windfall could easily get lost in the rounding.