Business Roundtable

Antiquated System Must Be Modernized

In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal today, Business Roundtable (BRT) President John Engler explained the facts about taxes paid by U.S. globally engaged companies:

“America’s corporate tax rate is too high and needs to come down. Who says so? President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney—and America’s jobs creators who believe lower rates are a necessity for economic growth.”

“A high corporate tax rate is not the only burden on doing business in the U.S. Also embedded in the tax code is an antiquated system that governs U.S. taxation of foreign earnings. … This ‘world-wide’ tax system has been in place since the establishment of our income-tax system in 1913.”

“[U]nder the current U.S. system … an American company … finds the Internal Revenue Service waiting with a big tax bill when the company tries to bring foreign earnings back to the U.S. … ecause America’s tax law requires the payment of an additional tax—generally the difference between the U.S. rate and the tax rate in the foreign market.”