{"id":19975,"date":"2014-01-17T12:51:21","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T17:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=19975"},"modified":"2014-01-17T13:16:30","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T18:16:30","slug":"time-to-fix-the-corporate-tax-code-while-fleeting-bipartisan-consensus-exists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/19975\/time-to-fix-the-corporate-tax-code-while-fleeting-bipartisan-consensus-exists\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to Fix the Corporate Tax Code, While Fleeting Bipartisan Consensus Exists"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no better example of Washington\u2019s dysfunction than the U.S. tax code.\u00a0 With President Obama\u2019s annual State of the Union Address<\/a> less than two weeks away, discussion about how to fix our broken tax code is growing.\u00a0 In particular, the House Ways & Means Committee released a video this week highlighting its problems, and some proposals about how to fix it.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BGizlBE-u10&feature=youtu.be<\/a><\/p>\n

The last time America\u2019s tax code was overhauled was in 1986, under President Ronald Reagan.\u00a0 Obviously, very much has changed since then, from the dot-com boom-and-bust, the rise of China as an economic powerhouse and the sub-prime mortgage crisis, just to name a few.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, the tax code continues to grow more complicated with each passing day. \u00a0 According to House Ways & Means Committee research, more than 4,400 changes to the tax code have occurred in the last 10 years, amounting to about one change per day.\u00a0 While other countries have been simplifying their codes and reducing rates, America\u2019s tax burden continues to grow in scope and complexity.<\/p>\n

While the fleeting political will do something still exists \u2013 even President Obama himself proclaimed<\/a>, \u201cOur corporate tax rate is too high\u201d \u2013 action is urgently required.\u00a0 The best solution is one that makes America more competitive globally and leads to economic growth.\u00a0 America\u2019s corporate tax rate currently stands at 35% – the highest in the world.\u00a0 Accordingly, a proposal to lower that corporate rate, while broadening the base, will result in a simpler, fairer tax code that both sides of Congress can get behind.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>, former Japanese Diet member Mieko Nakabayashi and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury James Carter spell out in stark terms the need for reform and reduction of U.S. corporate taxes, now the highest in the industrialized world.\u00a0 In particular, they highlight the alarming exodus of large corporations from America to more hospitable tax regimes with this statistic:<\/p>\n

When the U.S. last cut its corporate tax rate in 1986, 218 of the world\u2019s 500 largest corporations measured by revenue were in the U.S.\u00a0 Today, that number is 137.\u00a0 Similarly, the number of Japanese corporations in the Fortune Global 500 fell to 68 last year from 81 in 2005.\u00a0 While there is no single explanation for the drop, Tax Foundation chief economist William McBride tells us:\u00a0 \u2018The common thread behind all of this is the U.S. corporate tax, which is the most punitive in the developed world.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We live in a period of unprecedented political polarization.\u00a0 The need to reduce our corporate rate, however, has actually achieved bipartisan agreement, with Barack Obama himself proclaiming<\/a> the rate too high.\u00a0 Accordingly, the time is now to enact reduction and reform, lest America\u2019s legacy of economic leadership deteriorate further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no better example of Washington\u2019s dysfunction than the U.S. tax code.\u00a0 With President Obama\u2019s annual State of the Union Address less than two weeks away, discussion about how to fix our broken tax code is growing.\u00a0 In particular, the House Ways & Means Committee released a video this week highlighting its problems, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2837,3362,4439],"class_list":["post-19975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-corporate-tax","tag-rate-coalition","tag-reduction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19977,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19975\/revisions\/19977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}