jasencomstock: I like how we have the highest corporate tax rate AND AT THE SAME TIME, have several international corporations that pay no corporate income tax at all. I’d wager that the U.S. also has the most tax loopholes for corporations, which makes the statutory rate meaningless: Citizens for Tax Justice recently examined 280 Fortune 500 companies that were profitable each year from 2008 through 2010, and found that their average effective U.S. tax rate was just 18.5 percent over that three-year period. In other words, their effective tax rate, which is simply the percentage of U.S. profits paid in federal corporate income taxes, is only about half the statutory federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent, thanks to the many tax loopholes these companies enjoy. [more] So, I’m wondering if Heritage and its ilk would support policy that closes many of those loopholes while lowering the statutory rate. Revenue generated by taxing large corporations would actually go up, but it would appear to go down if all you’re considering is the statutory rate. Which is, of course, exactly what the graph above is doing — and it’s not terribly difficult to call bullshit on it.

jasencomstock:

I like how we have the highest corporate tax rate AND AT THE SAME TIME, have several international corporations that pay no corporate income tax at all.

I’d wager that the U.S. also has the most tax loopholes for corporations, which makes the statutory rate meaningless:

Citizens for Tax Justice recently examined 280 Fortune 500 companies that were profitable each year from 2008 through 2010, and found that their average effective U.S. tax rate was just 18.5 percent over that three-year period.

In other words, their effective tax rate, which is simply the percentage of U.S. profits paid in federal corporate income taxes, is only about half the statutory federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent, thanks to the many tax loopholes these companies enjoy. [more]

So, I’m wondering if Heritage and its ilk would support policy that closes many of those loopholes while lowering the statutory rate. Revenue generated by taxing large corporations would actually go up, but it would appear to go down if all you’re considering is the statutory rate. Which is, of course, exactly what the graph above is doing — and it’s not terribly difficult to call bullshit on it.

theheritagefoundation

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