It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that the United States has the world’s worst corporate tax system.
We definitely have the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, and we may have the highest corporate tax rate in the entire world depending on how one chooses to classify the tax regime in an obscure oil Sheikdom.
But America’s bad policy goes far beyond the rate structure. We also have a very punitive policy of “worldwide taxation” that forces American firms to pay an extra layer of tax when competing for market share in other nations.
And then we have rampant double taxation of both dividends and capital gains, which discourages business investment.
No wonder a couple of German economists ranked America 94 out of 100 nations when measuring the overall treatment of business income.
So if you’re an American company, how do you deal with all this bad policy?
Well, one solution is to engage in a lot of clever tax planning to minimize your taxable income. Although that’s probably not a successful long-term strategy because the Obama Administration is supporting a plan by European politicians to create further disadvantages for American-based companies.