An editorial in the Sunday Examiner, “High Corporate Taxes Hurt the Real Economy“:

As the current economic crisis runs its course, lawmakers must figure out how to help this nation’s “real economy” of goods and services regain its accustomed place as the strongest in the world. By far the best and the easiest place to start is by reforming America’s corporate tax structure to catch up with Europe and Asia. Step one is a lower corporate income tax. No better way exists to immediately improve the competitiveness of American companies, to repatriate jobs from abroad back to the United States, and to revitalize the whole economy.

Recent, relevant analysis from the Tax Foundation, “U.S. Corporate Taxes Now 50 Percent Higher than OECD Average“:

Amid rising concerns about the state of the U.S. economy, new data compiled by economists at the OECD shows that for the 17th consecutive year the average rate of corporate taxes in non-U.S. countries fell while the U.S. corporate tax rate stayed the same. As a result, the overall U.S. corporate tax rate is now 50 percent higher than the OECD average.Combined with another new OECD study that calls the corporate income tax the most harmful type of tax for economic growth, the implications for U.S. policy are clear. The long-term prospects of the U.S. economy are at risk as long as our corporate tax rate remains out of step with the rest of the world.

The U.S. continues to have the second-highest combined federal-state corporate tax rate among industrialized countries at 39.3 percent. Only Japan has a higher overall corporate tax rate at 39.5 percent. By contrast, the average corporate tax rate among OECD countries has fallen a full percentage point in the past year, from 27.6 percent to 26.6 percent. Ireland’s 12.5 percent corporate tax rate remains the lowest among OECD nations.

Paul Tyahla of New Jersey Business Matters reports recent political/economic/Corzine developments, “Gov Plans Legislative Address on the Economy.”

To be fair, Sweden isn’t quite the cliched Socialist Paradise/Pandaemonium that used to be held up to the United States as the ultimate comparison for where big government takes you, but still…

From Agence France Presse:

Sept. 8, 2008 — Sweden on Sept. 8 announced plans to cut the corporate tax rate from 28% to 26.3% in 2009 in a bid to improve the business climate. The move is part of a 16-billion-kronor (US$2.4 billion) package the government will formally present in its budget bill to parliament later this month.

Reducing the corporate tax rate will cost around 7.0 billion kronor.

The government said it would also reduce social contribution fees paid by employers by around one percentage point, a move that will cost another 7.5 billion kronor.

“The tax proposals strengthen the incentive for investment and new hires, while simplified regulations reduce companies’ administrative burdens,” the government said.

A good test for candidates’ tax plans. Do their tax proposals “strengthen the incentive for investment and new hires,” and do their “simplified regulations reduce companies’ administrative burdens?”

And let’s check with the Tax Foundation again, see what’s new.

Washington, DC, August 29, 2008 – A recent study shows that while America has left the major features of its business tax system unchanged over the past fifteen years, virtually all developed nations have lowered their corporate tax rates, potentially hurting the competitiveness of the United States.

In Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact No. 143, “Comparing International Corporate Tax Rates: U.S. Corporate Tax Rate Increasingly Out of Line by Various Measures,” Tax Foundation Vice President for Economic Policy Robert Carroll, Ph.D., uses various methods to compare U.S. corporate tax rates with member nations of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the G-7 countries.

“The U.S.’s combined federal-state statutory corporate tax rate (39.3%) is now well above the weighted average for both the member nations of the OECD (31.9%) and the larger G-7 countries (33.8%),” says Carroll. “Moreover, both groups of countries continue to lower their tax rates. Since the early 1980s, the weighted average corporate tax rate has fallen by 38 percent for OECD nations and 37 percent for the G-7 countries, not counting the U.S.”