Death....and Taxes

Here's something as sure as death and taxes...

People will do everything in their power to avoid BOTH!

According to the Cato Institute:

In recent years, most major nations have reduced their
statutory corporate income tax rates. Of the 30 nations in
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, 27 cut their general corporate income tax
rates since 2000, with an average cut of more than 7
percentage points. Among the 50 other nations examined
here, 28 reduced their corporate tax rates, with an average
cut also of about 7 percentage points.

And in a more recent story...

Taiwan Cuts Corporate Taxes
Posted by Chris Edwards

From the subscription magazine Tax Notes today:

Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan (parliament), in an attempt to attract foreign investors, on May 28 passed legislation cutting the island’s corporate tax rate from 20 percent to 17 percent, retroactive to January 1…

The lower corporate tax rate will make Taiwan more competitive with its East Asian rivals Singapore, whose rate is also 17 percent, and Hong Kong, whose rate remains slightly lower at 16.5 percent.

The reduced rate ‘will make us even more competitive and will help attract international businesses to set up their headquarters in Taiwan. We believe we’ll see the positive results in the next several years,’ lawmaker Alex Fei of the ruling Kuomintang.

If you were the CEO of an international company that made semiconductor chips, laptops, or other manufactured products, would you locate your next plant in the United States — where the corporate rate is about 40% — or Taiwan where it is less than half of that?

Kinda makes a guy go 'duh', doesn't it.

Also makes a guy wonder what our current administration is thinking in RAISING the effective tax rates in the midst of a debt crisis, sky-high unemployment, and the most significant recession since the Great Depression...How does THAT translate into more jobs, opportunities, and revenue?? Seems the rest of the world is pretty convinced it does not...

You can get a look at other countries' tax rates at: "http://www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb_62.pdf">