March 30,2012

Press Contact:

Julia Lawless, Antonia Ferrier, 202.224.4515

Hatch on U.S. Corporate Tax Rate Becoming Highest in World

SALT LAKE CITY – U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued the following statement today regarding Japan’s reduction in its corporate tax rate to 36.8 percent from 39.8 percent, leaving the United States as the nation having the highest corporate tax rate in the world at 39.2 percent:

“This isn’t an April Fool’s Day joke; as of April 1, the United States of America will have reached the inauspicious position of having the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world.  Every industrialized country around the globe understands that tax rates can determine whether or not businesses succeed or fail.  And America’s job creators know that to remain competitive abroad and create jobs here at home, we’ll have to radically reform our nation’s tax code, transition to a territorial tax system, and reduce our corporate tax rate to 25 percent.  America’s high corporate tax rate is a drain on economic growth, efficiency, job creation, and competitiveness.  I want America to be number one in many things, but having the highest corporate tax rate is definitely not one of them.  If we are serious about stopping so-called ‘outsourcing,’ we absolutely must start overhauling our tax system that is a drain on economic growth and efficiency.”

NOTE: Last October, as part of their recommendations to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (Joint Committee), Senate Finance Committee Republicans said Congress should act to bring the U.S. tax system more in line with other countries’ tax systems by having a territorial system. They further recommended the corporate tax rate be dropped to 25 percent.

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