If the average state levy is included, the U.S. corporate tax rate is about 40 percent, which is higher than the coporate rate in every European welfare state. American companies also must endure heavy regulatory burdens — especially in the aftermath of Sarbanes-Oxley.
Politicians fret that America is losing manufacturing jobs and they complain when American companies build plants overseas. Contrast the short-sighted behavior of U.S. lawmakers with those in Singapore. As noted by tax-news.com, the government of Singapore has just announced that the corporate tax rate is being reduced to 18 percent to boost international competition. The government also is boosting the value-added tax, so Singapore is not a perfect role model, but at least lawmakers understand the negative impact of high corporate tax rates:
In his Budget Statement for the Financial Year (FY) 2007, Second Minister for Finance, Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced a two percentage point reduction in the corporate income tax rate to 18% to sharpen Singapore’s competitive edge. However, the corporate tax cut will be balanced against a number of revenue raising provisions, such as…an increase in the GST rate from 5% to 7%.
