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Tax Policy

The United States’ combined corporate tax rate (which includes the federal rate plus the average state rate) is 39.0 percent — the highest among OECD nations and more than 14.0 percentage points above the non-U.S. OECD average of 24.6 percent. 

More than 70 percent of the U.S. corporate income tax burden is borne by U.S. workers, while roughly 30 percent is borne by domestic savers through a reduced return on their savings, according to a CBO analysis. 

The United States is one of the few OECD countries with a worldwide tax system as opposed to a territorial system. Of the 34 OECD countries, 28 employ a territorial tax system, which either wholly or partially exempts the worldwide earnings of their global companies.

90 percent of the non-U.S. OECD companies in the Global Fortune 500 are headquartered in a country that has a territorial tax system, and all have a lower home-country corporate tax rate than that of the United States. 

Over the last decade, the United States has lost more than $179 billion in net assets (relative to other OECD nations) via foreign acquisition of U.S. companies and assets

The U.S. federal corporate tax rate has increased by 1.0 percentage point, and the U.S. combined corporate tax rate has increased by 0.4 percentage points since 1988. In contrast, the average OECD combined corporate tax rate (excluding the United States) has fallen by more than 19 percentage points over the same period.

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