November 2, 2008
Atlanta Sunday Paper Features President Scott Hodge in Special Report on What Challenges the Next President Will Face
By Stephanie Ramage
"The tax system for individual Americans is broken."
-Scott A. Hodge, president, The Tax Foundation, a nonprofit think tank founded in 1937 and devoted to educating the public about tax responsibility on the part of the government and its citizens.
Q What's the No. 1 tax-related concern for the next president?
A We have to address America's lagging competitiveness with the rest of the globe.
Our business tax rates are 50 percent higher than those of most other industrialized countries. If we lower the business tax rate, we will see investment in business increase and more jobs created.
The corporate tax is made up of the federal tax, which is 35 percent, and the state tax, which is about 4 percent, so that's 39 percent. That's almost 50 percent higher than most other countries, which are at about 20 percent.
Businesses don't bear the real burden for taxes, real people do-workers who get lower or stagnant wages and shareholders who have lower dividends.
Our problem is not just here in the U.S., it's a matter of competition in the global marketplace. The strength of our U.S. companies is in their ability to compete globally.
