The United States has the highest corporate tax rate in the world.
 

I hear people maligning many U.S. corporations for seeking tax shelter in other countries but at 39% for their income tax compared to about 25% in other countries, how can they remain competitive?

The U.S. Has the Highest Corporate Income Tax Rate in the OECD | Tax Foundation

and to be fair, this is what Wikipedia says about the Tax Foundation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Foundation

Remove the tax breaks and enforce anti trust laws. Then you really have a free market. "One nation.... Under corporation, with liberty and justice to those that can afford it!"

In the final analysis there is only one class of persons who pay taxes-- the ultimate consumer. That includes gasoline taxes corporate income taxes, on and on.

One way or another all taxes are added into the price .

I wonder why that is such a difficult concept for most people to understand.

Exactly...Corporation don't pay taxes; consumers do....period

Pity the poor corporations. How can they remain competitive,really?

U.S. Corporate Profits Up Year-Over-Year for 12th Straight Quarter - Real Time Economics - WSJ

Amen!!! So true.

Another reason some corporations do business overseas, to reap more profits.

I never seen a CEO standing in the bread line. :D

Not to worry. Tax breaks lower it WAY below 39%. Much closer to 12%.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014...99492233215330

No need to "pity" the corporations, that emotion should be reserved for the consumer who is paying the bill.

This is a case of "cut off nose to spite face" High corporate taxes make American companies less competitive and therefore encourage cheaper imports. Balnce of trade problems, balance of payments problems etc.

Since over half of US households pay NO income taxes the government has to get it somewhere. The problem is onerous corporate taxes are strangling the geese that lay the golden eggs. However it appears the geese are wising up and flying away to headquarter elsewhere. Who can blame them?

On an individual scale many people who reside in high tax states, especially retirees who can relocate, are moving to lower tax states such as Florida and Texas.

Its all about free enterprise. If you have the right lobbyist, you can have the right tax laws so that your effective tax rate is zero and another company has to pay the full rate. How many first term lawmakers are writing tax law legislation? That gives you a competitive advantage and a bigger bonus at the end of the year. Callous but true.

Drop the corporate tax rate to 10% and watch the millions and millions of jobs return to the US as corporations return. And than watch the exports grow exponentially. Such a simple jobs solution but no one wants to champion it.

How many believe that if corporate taxes went to zero, that prices would go down to reflect that?

30 years ago, I would have agreed with you. Today, not so much.

Ending the corporate tax would end corporate tax breaks!!

Then there is the issue of government subsidies.

"Unintended Consequences" Hmmmmmmmmmm

how manyof us would keep our money in a foreign country that had no more risk to loss than here at home but with a return of double or more.....and no taxes on the earnings?

There would be some corporate expatriation of dollars that would come back to the USA if there were a competitive tax advantage. Some of those dollars would/could be invested in facilities and capabilities in the USA to be more competitive. End result no financial disadvantage for the corporate bottom line and the potential for increased employment here at home.

Today the incentive is for corporations to keep foreign earnings offshore.

Instead of complaining that big corporations make too much money, why not buy stock in a few of these companies and then you can share in the profits.
Many pay safe and dependable dividends that are way higher than bond interest rates.

Bravo.

I've been trying to explain this to people for years. What we have however is a system where politicians believe they can get votes by creating a boogie man. They are usually big corporation, "big oil", (which is not even an entity), the rich and some others. By raising taxes and punishing these bad guys, politicians convince people they are helping them and thus get them to vote for them.

We the people need to learn that every tax comes out of the pocket of the ultimate consumer. Corporations do not pay taxes. They simply pass the money from us to the government. Then the government somehow convinces us that making these corporations take more money from us to give to them somehow benefits us.

That's an excellent point.

The fact is that many of us do own stock in some of these companies in the form of mutual funds, IRAs and 401Ks. All of that money is invested somewhere and most of don't know exactly where it is. I wonder how many people that want to see oil companies punished by cutting their profits have money invested in them and don't know it.

And offshore loopholes lower it even further--even down to 1%. Check this out.

Mylan, Heinz among U.S. companies using Luxembourg for tax reduction | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

I'm all for lowering the corporate income tax rate if it will keep jobs in the US. But something has to be done about all the loopholes and end-arounds that enable these large corps to avoid paying taxes. They can be profitable and pay their fair share of taxes as well.

Would it be better if American corporations were failing? Would it be better if they made less money?

Is making a profit a bad thing?

Corporations are taking advantage of those "loopholes" because the tax rate is so high. If we did away with corporate taxes, they'd have no reason to go offshore or use "loopholes". And I wonder how many foreign companies might move here if the tax rates were lower than their home country?

Loopholes by the way, are legal deductions and exemptions written into our tax laws. Does anyone who files a return not try to find every exemption and deduction in order to pay the least amount of taxes that they can? I don't know of anyone that doesn't do that.

Now people are going to respond that lawmakers have written these "loopholes" into our tax laws to benefit corporations that contribute to their campaigns and that is totally true.

The entire tax system in this country is broken and needs to be replaced.

This would be the best thing that we could ever do for this country, but I don't believe that it will ever happen because it takes power away from our elected officials in Washington.

Pass the Fair Tax | FAIRtax.org

I'd love to see the Fair Tax combined with term limits limiting all federal politicians to one term.

Representatives one term of six years, senators, one term of nine years and president, one term of six years.

Replace one third of the house and senate every three years.

These two measures would improve this country immensely.

Abolishing the whole US Tax Code and implementing a Flat Tax for ALL--individuals AND corporations--with little or no tax on incomes below $40,000 or so, is the only thing that makes sense.

But it's not going to happen with all the tax accountants, tax lawyers, and lawyers in the Congress and Administration who feed at this trough.

This was proposed in 2009 by deceased Sen. Specter, a flat tax calculation method that fits on a post card, and it makes sense! (that's why we'll never see it happen, sadly):

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...1&d=1422211683

Senator Arlen Specter’s Proposal

S. 741. The Flat Tax Act of 2009 was introduced on March 30, 2009, and referred to the Senate Finance Committee. This act is modeled after the Hall-Rabushka proposal, which was previously discussed. The Specter flat rate consumption tax would replace the federal individual and corporate income taxes and the federal estate and gift taxes.

This proposal has two components: a wage tax and a cash-flow tax on businesses. It is essentially a modified VAT, with wages, salaries, and pensions subtracted from the VAT base and taxed at the individual level.

The individual wage tax would be levied at a 20% rate on all wages, salaries, and pensions. In addition, government employees and employees of nonprofits would have to add to their wage base the imputed value of their fringe benefits. The individual wage tax would have “standard deductions” that would equal the sum of the “basic standard deduction” and the “additional standard deduction.”

The “basic standard deduction” would depend on filing status. For tax year 2010, the basic standard deduction would have been the following:

• $25,000 for a joint return;
• $25,000 for a surviving spouse;
• $18,750 for a head of household;
• $12,500 for a married taxpayer filing separately; and
• $12,500 for a single taxpayer.

The “additional standard deduction” would be an amount equal to $6,250 for each dependent of the taxpayer. All deductions would be indexed for inflation.

Congressional Research Service

See this and all other tax proposals for the year at:

http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40414_20100319.pdf

..

I agree with you on one point: close the loopholes and lower the corporate tax rate to something reasonable--but fair. But I don't believe all loopholes were intentionally written into the laws. I think they were discovered by some very clever attorneys. To me a deduction is far different than a loophole.

And I like your term limit ideas.

What else can we put in our pipe to smoke?

If you go to the Deloitte website you can see the corporate tax rates for all countries. Even the Communist countries have lower tax rates. Of course they may not have the tax writeoffs and deductions that are available to corporations here. Our effective tax rates could be lower.
The great philosopher Glenn Beck once said, "Democrats are tax and spend, Republicans are just spend."

"Fair share" - I hate that term. Who gets to decide what "fair" is?

In my opinion, the only "fair" thing to do is abolish fed, state, and city taxes, including property taxes, as well as corporate taxes and go to a pure consumption tax with a sliding deduction based on income to reduce/eliminate the regressive aspects. In other words, if you buy something you pay a tax on it. The more stuff/services you buy the more tax you pay. The infrastructure is already in place since most states already collect sales tax. The tax rate on goods and services would go up but other taxes would be eliminated. You would eliminate tax loopholes. If you have a high income, you would not be able to shelter your income, unless you choose to not buy anything, pretty unlikely. If you make most of your income from capital gains it would no longer be taxed at the capital gains rate. You pay taxes when you spend it. The underground economy would be a problem but it is already. I don't have a solution for that.

That's similar to the Fair Tax. The underground economy would be less of a problem because only new good purchased by the ultimate consumer would be taxed. It would eliminate working under the table. It would also tax all illegal income such as that made by drug dealers. Unless, as you say they never purchase anything.

The Fair Tax also gives everyone in the country a rebate equal to the amount of the tax on the poverty level so that people earning the poverty level pay zero taxes.

And yet sometimes corporations such as General Electric get through the year without paying any corporate tax. The "rate" is a bogeyman when you consider all the loopholes and special tax credits available to various industries as a result of the work of their lobbyists on Congress -- the best Congress money can buy.

There is a campaign to make all private industry the bogeyman. What gives with that?

What would we do without our large companies??? Only eight percent of people work for the government. Most of us worked for For Profit Companies.

I hear all kinds of put downs about how much CEO's make. They didn't just fall into that position and it is NOT easy to bear all that responsibility. There is a nasty movement to poison us all into a class war. After we have worked hard to have what we have, and encouraged our kids to get a good education and be successful...but pity the poor soul who has to tell their friends that their kid is CEO of General Electric.

WHAT is happening to us as a country????

Well, you started this thread. What did you expect to get for responses??

A lot of folks have stated their opinions on corporate tax rates, or the lack thereof. As well as, corporations that spend HUGE sums of money to lobby congress for laws that increase their ability to earn more profits. But, that's another thread.

And it's a shame many of the posters on this thread don't understand what you are stating; instead they seem to feel put upon by whatever organization gave them an opportunity to have a career, earn a living and support their families. It must be terrible living with such a negative perspective on life.

The United States has the highest corporate tax rate in the world.
 

Gracie - I concur. There are some agreeable responders and others who seem to feel otherwise. IMO, they may think they have been robbed of something they believe they were owed. Kind of like the 50% of our citizens who are not paying taxes but believe the other 50% should be obligated to support them.

I think most people do not begrudge a CEO fair compensation. However, as a public company, they do begrudge one who unfairly uses his cronies on the Board of Directors to to take profits from the shareholders or owners of the company to give himself a $50 million bonus in lieu of $5 million bonus for one year of work. This is fairly similar to our representatives looking out for their own special interest.

If a major corporation pays any sizable amount of taxes I think they would be looking for new accounting dept in a hurry

The fact some don't like how many large corporations use loopholes to dodge paying taxes, or that some CEOs run a company into the ground and then exit stage right with multi-million-dollar packages DOES NOT categorically equate to a condemnation of large corporations. Be careful not to read opinions into people's statements.

This is a forum where people can express their concern over issues. Many have brought up points I personally found interesting regarding taxes and corporations.(But I'm still not convinced CEOs of major corps. are worth the money they're paid.)

If the loopholes are legal. New York State advertises tax breaks to corporations to woo them there. Business makes an area financially healthy and provides jobs.

I am like Rags in that I just want to know, and want everyone to know, the agenda of a person's attitude and don't like it when someone says he is one thing and he is really another.

And I am not talking about YOU C. I know how you feel and you are entitled to your views just like I am entitled to mine. I am a moderate Republican except I am VERY fiscally conservative...in my life and in my views. Money is hard to come by if you work for it. AND easily spent.

One thing to remember is that the U.S. added almost 3 million jobs in 2014, the best since 1999. That's good news no matter what. We all fondly remember the 50's when every thing was booming and life was so good. The corporate tax rate was 52%. But remember that after tax breaks the actual rate is nowhere near it. If were to lower the rate and close some loopholes the net effect would be the same.

One other thing. At one time I was asked my political stance and I said probably a Rockefeller Republican. That makes me a liberal now. And GG, I think you might have been a moderate Republican at one time.

[QUOTE=graciegirl;1001429]There is a campaign to make all private industry the bogeyman. What gives with that?

What would we do without our large companies??? Only eight percent of people work for the government. Most of us worked for For Profit Companies.

I hear all kinds of put downs about how much CEO's make. They didn't just fall into that position and it is NOT easy to bear all that responsibility. There is a nasty movement to poison us all into a class war. After we have worked hard to have what we have, and encouraged our kids to get a good education and be successful...but pity the poor soul who has to tell their friends that their kid is CEO of General Electric.

WHAT is happening to us as a country????[/QUOte

Sure large companies are good - but what IS NOT GOOD is that the "big companies" basically see themselves above the law (in this case, the IRS) and take their company offshore along with all the profits. This IS NOT being patriotic.

The current tax code has certain rates that corporations are supposed to pay. We, as tax payers, have certain tax rates we are supposed to pay. We pay them. Let the corporations pay what they are supposed to pay.

The corporate tax rate for U.S. companies overseas may be lower, but the personal income taxes on the people living in some of these foreign countries is horrendous. I'll say yes to lower corporate tax rates here when I get a lower tax rate. There's no reason any corporation should pay less (percent of earnings/income) in taxes than I do.

Hubby and I were surprised when we visited Australia a couple of years ago.

They have a very strong economy. Their banks pay 5% interest on saving. Their minimum wage is =$18.00/hr in US dollars. There is no tipping because they pay a living wage. What a concept!!!

They have a very low unemployment rate despite issues with illegal aliens from SE Asia.

They have had universal, single payer health care with which they seem very happy. It it like our medicare, but for everyone. Some older people also get private insurance as their risks increase.

We were asked so many questions about why health care is such an issue here, why our economy is in such bad shape. The people we met had as many questions about our government as we did about theirs. We learned a lot. Our eyes were opened on many issues.

Their country runs with a surplus!! Not a deficit!!

We asked if their taxes were high. They did not think so. They said that the corporations make up for any of the nations needs that income tax did not cover. They were actually upset when we were there because their national surplus had dipped!

When young couples start a family they get a $5,000 "baby bonus" for each baby. It is cash on a debit card for baby expenses. That's for each baby. But they have very low welfare rolls.

It was like being dropped onto another planet. The standard of living is high. homelessness was low.

I do believe that we live in the best country in the world.

But I do believe that we have let our elected officials take us far off track. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the middle class shrinks. Corporate America DOES make all the rules. They have the elected officials from both parties in their back pockets.

You won't see tax reform in our lifetimes. Because there is too much at risk for our professional politicians. The corporate tax cuts will continue and the rich will continue to get rich and the poor continue to get poorer. We have set our government up with career politicians that do not care about you or me or the real future of our country.

This is not what our founding fathers envisioned. They wanted ordinary people to serve the nation, then go back to their real career after serving. I do not know the answers to the problems we have today. But contrasting our nation with Australia was stark and very difficult to swallow. We need term limits and politicians who serve the people not the special interests.

We are the lucky ones. Our grandkids will be the ones to really have to deal with these realities.
That trip to Australia was very eye opening to us.

C-let's put aside the issue of CEO comp for a bit. What we all need to realize is that the current corporate tax structure encourages companies to move production overseas, and retain profits there as well. GE is a perfect example; they have moved their production of light bulbs, locomotives, radiology equipment, etc to China. Along with movement of production went the jobs here. I realize this is an oversimplification that involves far more: wages, unions, cost of materials, etc. However, the basic issue is as I stated - taxes.