The Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-223) was enacted as part of a compromise between the Carter Administration and the Congress over the decontrol of crude oil prices.[1] The Act was intended to recoup the revenue earned by oil producers as a result of the sharp increase in oil prices brought about by the OPEC oil embargo. According to the Congressional Research Service, the Act's title was a misnomer. "Despite its name, the crude oil windfall profit tax... was not a tax on profits. It was an excise tax... imposed on the difference between the market price of oil, which was technically referred to as the removal price, and a statutory 1979 base price that was adjusted quarterly for inflation and state severance taxes."[2][1]
tax history
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).