The United States, with the world's-largest economy, now has claimed
the dubious distinction of having the industrialized world's highest
corporate tax rate.
Japan dropped its corporate tax rate slightly on
Sunday, to just more than 38 percent. That moved the United States to
the top spot, with a 39.2 percent rate.
The U.S. has maintained that rate for two decades and it is unlikely to be changed in the coming months.
The United States is in the early stages of the political campaign
leading to the national presidential election in November. The country's
politicians have offered widely varying tax proposals, but have shown
little inclination to reach agreement before the election.
Despite
the official corporate tax rate, many U.S. businesses pay a sharply
diminished proportion of their profits in taxes, sometimes nothing. They
are able to legally reduce their taxes by deducting business expenses,
and U.S. tax laws exempt some types of income from taxation.
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by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD],
concluded American corporations paid an effective tax rate of about 24
percent. That was slightly less than the average for the 34-nation OECD
coalition that promotes global economic advancement.
The OECD said
that Ireland has the lowest tax rate among its members, a 12.5 percent
rate. The island nation has used the rate to Mulberry Bags
boost its economy, but other European nations have said it gives
Ireland an unfair advantage in attracting corporations to locate there.
Four other countries - the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary
and Poland - have a 19 percent corporate tax rate.
U.S. President
Barrack Obama, a Democrat, has called for corporate tax reform with a
top rate of 28 percent. he leading Republican seeking to oust him, cheap oakley sunglasses
one-time venture capitalist Mitt Romany, says he wants to cut the rate
to 25 percent. Both say they want to overhaul the country's complex tax
code, which would also affect the size of the tax bills that all
American workers pay.