On Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Host John Dickerson and Sanders had the following exchange regarding the GOP tax bill and corporate taxes:
DICKERSON: If Democrats take control, are corporate taxes going up?
SANDERS: I think we’re going to take a very hard look at this entire tax bill and make it a tax bill that works for the middle class, and working families, not for the top one percent and large multinational corporations.
DICKERSON: But there’s no question that in order to achieve all of the things you want, taxes are going to have to go up on corporations. If they’re down to 21 as a result of this legislation, you can’t find the money anywhere else.
SANDERS: Absolutely, yes, absolutely. In my view, absolutely.
According to PunditFact, the United States has the highest corporate tax rate among nations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at 39.1%, a staggering 15% above the median. The outlet notes, however, that with deductions such as “health insurance, pensions, and investment returns,” the tax rate actually paid by U.S. corporations, known as the “effective tax rate,” stands at 27.9% as of 2014, the “second-highest behind New Zealand among OECD countries and 15th-highest among the 189 countries measured.”
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculations differ, placing the “effective tax rate” for corporations in the United States even lower at 18.6%. Three other nations rank higher — Argentina (22.6%), Japan (21.7%), and the U.K. (18.7%).
While measurements vary due to the complexities of our tax system — and many companies game the system with loopholes and subsidies — in terms of pure tax rates, the United States still ranks near the top of the corporate tax chart by nearly all calculations.
