Trump tax law lets oil drillers dodge the corporate minimum tax

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Republican budget-reconciliation package President Trump signed on July 4, 2025, created a carve-out — Section 70523, authored by Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma and absent from the House version of the bill — allowing oil and gas producers to deduct intangible drilling costs (IDCs) when calculating their liability under the 15 percent corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT). IDCs — the wages, supplies, and site-preparation expenses that make up roughly 60 to 80 percent of a well's cost — are among the oldest fossil-fuel subsidies in the tax code, deductible since 1913. The CAMT had been created by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to keep large, profitable corporations from zeroing out their tax bills; the carve-out lets many drillers reduce or eliminate their minimum-tax exposure, with some potentially paying no federal income tax at all. The Joint Committee on Taxation scored the enacted provision at about $427 million over a decade, while Lankford's standalone version and broader Senate estimates ran to roughly $1.1 billion. Bloomberg reported that ConocoPhillips, Ovintiv, and Civitas Resources lobbied for it; in June 2025, Senators Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Chuck Schumer wrote to ConocoPhillips and Ovintiv demanding they disclose their lobbying spending and recent political donations to officials backing the tax cut. Oil and gas is the largest industry source of Lankford's own campaign contributions — more than $546,000 between 2019 and 2024, according to OpenSecrets. The provision took effect for tax years beginning after December 31, 2025.