Are U.S. Corporations overtaxed?

Lets just begin by assuming they are. The draconian taxes of the United States is what is preventing American companies from expanding in the U.S. The trillion dollars that is parked outside of the United States is often used as a proxy to argue that our country is not "business friendly."

But does anyone care about where these "low tax rates are?" The money is not being parked in Europe. It is not being parked in India and China. It is being parked in small Nordic countries (oh the Dutch) and islands (i.e. Cayman Islands) where the only requirement is that the company maintain a post office box to able to park their money. How can we possibly match the 5% tax rates of these countries for corporations and still maintain our roads, fight two wars, and pay our entitlements?

The whole argument that our tax rates are too high is a red herring. There will always be a tiny island in the middle of nowhere that can undercut our tax rates. Companies will always move their money off-shore or find a more tax friendly area. We, as one of the largest Republics in the world, cannot compete with tax rates of an island that is the size of one of our states and an economy that maybe one of our country's towns can equal.

But the discourse has been that we have very high corporate tax rates.

Finally, where is the mad rush for these corporations to invest in? India and China. No one will reasonably argue that these countries are more business friendly. American carmakers, for example, are required to partner up with indigenous firms in China (for example) to be able to tap those markets. Onerous much?

But despite these regulations--companies are trying to aggressively invest in these markets because the demand is there. Maybe its not high tax rates that is preventing companies from investing in American but simply a function of a depressed economy and weak demand.

This is not to say that we cannot do anything to make it more business friendly for corporations. However, saying that our country taxes our companies to death is--in my opinion--at least questionable.

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I also stumbled upon this:

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/07/05/260535/graph-corporate-tax-second-lowest/