American Corporate Tax Exceptionalism

The combined U.S. statutory corporate tax rate is more than 12 percentage points higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average. At the same time, the United States is the only OECD country that does not have a national value-added type tax, and U.S. rules for taxing foreign source income also diverge from common international practice.

On February 20, the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center (TPC) and the International Tax Policy Forum held a half-day conference to assess the extent to which the U.S. tax system differs from international norms and whether these differences affect U.S. economic performance.

William Gale, Brookings vice president and director of Economic Studies, and TPC co-director, provided introductory comments.

Presentation Slides:

Taxation of Foreign Income by the U.S. and Other Governments »
by James R. Hines Jr.

Corporate Income Tax Burdens at Home and Abroad »
by Kevin Markle and Douglas A. Shackelford

Comments on “Corporate Income Tax Burdens at Home and Abroad” »
by Martin A. Sullivan

Taxing Multinational Firms: Securing Jobs or the New Protectionism? »
by Alan Auerbach