Giant Hole In "2nd Highest Corporate Tax Rate" Myth

Even though I helped debunk this myth two months ago [1], Conservatives are still pushing the canard [2] that America's economic problems [3] stem from having the world's second highest corporate tax rate [4], and therefore, corporations should get a big fat tax cut [5].

As I reported in June [1], while it's technically accurate that America has the second highest corporate tax rate of the 30 mostly wealthy countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, in practice it has the fourth lowest corporate tax revenues among those nations, because of all the special tax favors we currently dole out to corporations [6] and because many corporations shirk their patriotic tax responsibilities and park profits overseas. [7]

Today even more evidence comes out to debunk the conservative corporate tax myth. The Associated Press reports [8] (link via ThinkProgress [9]) that a new U.S. General Accountability Office study finds 68 percent of U.S. corporations do not pay any taxes at all.

Conservatives concocted the corporate tax myth to conjure up an excuse for more corporate tax cuts.

But after taking the facts into account, perhaps our economic woes have more to do with an unfair tax structure, where the wealthy and powerful do not contribute their fair share to America's success, and weaken our collective ability to invest in our foundation.