Thread by @eisingerj

Meet Phyllis Taylor. She’s a big New Orleanian billionaire philanthropist.

A friend called her a “Gentle Dove.” She also likes hunting, and shot this leopard in Zambia:

Early on when @paulkiel & @jeffernsthausen & I dove into the #SecretIRSFiles, Phyllis Taylor stood out.

Her taxes are mind-boggling. It shows her losing on the order of $350 million--every year.

She hadn’t paid federal income taxes for years and years.

How was that possible?

We dove in.

Turns out she owns an oil exploration company called Taylor Energy. It made her, at one point, the richest woman in Louisiana.

And that company is responsible for the longest-running, and maybe the largest, oil spill ever in the U.S.

We found that the spill cleanup costs helped her avoid taxes.

For a long time.

2004 was a big year for Phyllis. Hurricane Ivan knocked down a Taylor Energy oil rig. The spill started. Also, her husband—the company’s founder— died. She took control of the company.

His death was a big tax boon. All the gain in value that Taylor Energy had experienced over the decades disappeared for tax purposes. Phyllis essentially got the company for free.

Phyllis sold most of the company in 2008. She got around $1.2 billion tax-free.

Actually, it was better than that for her. She was able to record a loss that allowed her to get deductions on taxes from earlier years.

From 2005 to 2018, Phyllis Taylor did not pay a cent in federal income taxes.

In that time, she brought in $444 million in income.

All that time, the spill continued. In the early years of the spill, the public knew almost nothing about it. Taylor Energy fought public records requests. It was very hush-hush.

Taylor Energy wasn’t fixing the spill. But it was spending money to try. All that expense became a tax write-off for her.

This may be surprising but it’s perfectly legal and typical. That kind of expense is deemed “ordinary and necessary.”

The govt was trying to get Taylor Energy to do a better job cleaning it up. Taylor Energy was saying a fix wasn’t technologically possible. The govt got fed up. In a report the govt said this about the company:

The spill is still not fixed. Another company had to come in and put a dome over it. It’s contained but not stopped.

Today, Phyllis Taylor is celebrated in New Orleans. She was made an honorary marine. She was given the Loving Cup award from the Times-Picayune.

Life is good. (She didn’t respond to requests for comment.)

Here’s our story: propublica.org/article/a-mass…

And here’s the first story in our series-within-a-series, about ultrawealthy real estate and oil & gas people who avoid taxes:

propublica.org/article/these-…

And here’s the second from yesterday, about how the hobbies & side-businesses of the ultrawealthy produce tax write-offs for them.

You don't need to read all these endless words. Just click on them and tell all your friends about it.

propublica.org/article/when-y…