39.1%: CBO Says U.S. Has Highest Top Statutory Corporate Tax Rate in G20

The United States has the highest top statutory corporate tax rate—39.1%—of any nation in the G20, according to a study released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office.

That rate is nearly twice as high as the 20-percent rate in Russia, which, along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, has the lowest statutory corporate tax rate in the G20.

The U.S. won the top spot on the statutory-corporate-tax-rate list after Japan and Germany, which formerly ranked first and second, cut their rates.

“The United States made no change in federal corporate tax rates between 2003 and 2012,” said the CBO, “and by 2012, it had the highest top statutory rate in the G20.” …

best way to simplify the tax code would be to ELIMINATE the corporate income tax completely. like taxing capital gains at lower rate, the corporate income tax is an infamous tax dodge.
if you really want to drain the swap, the corporate income tax is the place to start as source of lobbying & corruption & tax unfairness.
the corporate income tax was created to tax rich individuals, not “business” before 1913 when there was no way to tax the rich individually before the income tax was passed on individuals. but now the corporate income tax is no longer a tax on the rich as much as a way for the rich to avoid taxes.
moreover....to make matters even more confusing, a Supreme Court ruling declared the corporate income tax to be a legal “EXCISE TAX”-—and by definition, an excise tax is a tax on goods paid for by consumers..........and in this case, it’s a tax on goods made by American workers.
Reagan’s tax de-form was awful.
Trump can be a hero if he stops being absorbed by the party Borg & cuts his own path through the swamp......by eliminating the corporate income tax AND payroll taxes.......by replacing both by a VAT of somewhere between 15% and 20%.....and making an income tax code that’s not steep. such as exempting the first $100,000 of income. When the income tax was passed in 1913, people were told that it was a tax ONLY on the rich...and it never would exceed 10%.
But 1980, we had a 40% tax bracket at $105,000 and a 70% tax bracket at less than $300,000.....so steep that no corporate board of directors or team owner would pay anybody millions of dollars because the government would get 70% of most of it.........but they had company cars, company planes, company credit cards and expense accounts......all write offs by the corporations that were extra perks for CEOs.
Stagflation was caused by high rates on an ultra steep tax code....that didn’t reward work, savings or investment. Reagan cut the top rate from 70% to 50%....and hence was slammed for giving a big tax cut to the richest.
In 1986, Reagan’s tax deform cut the top tax rate from 50% to 38.5% in 1987 down to 28% in 1988...but not including payroll taxes....while he eliminating middle class deductions.
But did Reagan put his 28% top rate on income over $250,000 or $500,000 or $1 million? NO. Reagan’s tax de-form still had the code ULTRA-STEEP, with the top tax rate/bracket kicking in at just $85,000 and with payroll taxes not even deductible. So the top tax rate kicked in at near the cap on payroll taxes......so middle class paid 15% , plus 8% + 8%= 31% tax rate, whereas the richest paid 28% because their payroll tax phased out.
This 1986 tax de-form was implemented in 1988 & lasted 2 years because its implementation was followed by a crash, recession and Savings and Loan crisis. Plus, when the top tax bracket kicks in at just $85,000. then it is quite easy for the next president to stick a 31% rate above it and for the next president to stick a 36% and 39.6% tax bracket above that without making the code any more steep and making it seem more fair to many people.
Stagflation was caused by a steep tax code and high regulations impeding savings and investment, hence innovation and competition.
the capital gains tax rate was 20% in Reagan’s first time, same as it was in Clinton’s second term, when we got fast growth....but that doesn’t mean voter popularity and tax fairness. Reagan raised the capital gains rate to 28% to equal his top marginal tax rate. and actually, the stock market grew nicely until 1997 with that higher rate.....making it perhaps a consideration to tax cap gains as regular income...IF the code is unsteep and there is no payroll or corporate income tax.
and if the corporate income tax is an “excise tax”, then our government has no authority to levy an excise tax on U.S. multinational corporations overseas production and sales. It would take ONLY an executive order by the President to the IRS to repatriate all those foreign profits and NOT an act of Congress. The president only needs to cite the Supreme court decision that calls the corporate income tax an “excise tax” to support his order telling the IRS to stop putting an excise tax without any authority on foreign produced goods sold overseas markets

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.