Capital is the gasoline of an economy. A plentiful supply propels growth, jobs, investment, and prosperity. A lack results in malaise, unemployment, and poverty.
A truism involving capital is that capital flows to where it is best treated. A key component of the treatment of capital is how highly it is taxed.
In a recent economic paper, two academics measured the tax attractiveness of 100 countries, applying 16 components of real-world taxation. In an astounding result, only 5 countries were more unattractive than the United States.
Even more disturbing is that the analysis was conducted for the period 2005 to 2009. With the recent increases in U.S. taxes that were enacted after 2009, the ranking of the U.S. on a current basis could very well be even lower.
If you would like to lose some sleep, take a look at Table 3 on page 45 of the paper to see how the U.S. stacks up against other countries.
Measuring Tax Attractiveness Across Countries, by Sara Keller of the Otto Beisheim School of management and Deborah Schanz of the Ludwig-Maimilians-University Munich
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