Comparing International Corporate Tax Rates

The U.S. has left the major features of its business tax system unchanged over the past fifteen years. Meanwhile, other countries have been changing theirs, potentially hurting the competitiveness of the United States. Perhaps most emblematic of the trend abroad is lower corporate tax rates in virtually all developed nations. As a result, the United States now has the second-highest statutory tax rate among OECD member nations.

The U.S. became a low-tax rate country with enactment of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, dropping its federal corporate tax rate from 46 to 34 percent. But since then the reduction in corporate tax rates by most other developed nations has left the United States in the unenviable position of a high-tax rate country.