U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans to convene a conference in the coming week that could lead to an overhaul of the corporate tax system and a cut in corporate taxes.
In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, Paulson indicated that he believes the high rate of corporate taxes in the United States is harming its competitiveness in the world market. "The current tax code distorts capital flows, hurting productivity, job creation and our global competitiveness," he wrote.
The one-day conference on July 26 will include former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Berkshire Hathaway investor Warren Buffett, and executives from companies such as FedEx and Oracle.
Paulson compared the corporate tax rate in the U.S. to that of the other 29 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. He claimed that U.S. corporations pay the second highest statutory corporate tax rate, including state taxes, at 39 percent, compared to an average of 31 percent for the other nations in the OECD, and said that put U.S. companies at a disadvantage.
