Puget Power charges questioned

April 15, 1980. This article charts some discrepancies that arose in the late 1970s between the amounts that the nation?s largest power companies charged for federal income taxes and the amount they in fact paid to the IRS. The Environmental Action Foundation states that nearly a third of utility companies surveyed paid no federal income taxes in 1978 and others were regularly collecting one amount but paying a lesser amount in taxes. This monetary difference is referred to as ?Phantom Taxes,? and the money is put into ?deferred tax? accounts for operating and construction expenses. The latter half of the article addresses the consequences of these phantom tax discrepancies in relation to public consumers and commercial sectors. KEYWORDS: Puget Sound Power & Light Co; Environmental Action Foundation (EAF); Internal Revenue Service (IRS); Tax Credits; Utility companies; 280DP18037