From John Dean website and yes I agree with them that the corporate tax burden has shrunk in the last 50 years
_____________________________
Oct 18, 2003
Corporate Tax Burden Shrinking
In his economics speech a few days ago, Dean actually understated the degree to which the corporate tax burden has fallen in recent decades:
Consider this — from the 1930s through the 1960s, corporations paid 30 to 40 percent of the taxes, and the rest of us paid 60-70. Today, corporations pay about 13 percent of taxes. It’s time to move the balance back and take some of the burden off the individual taxpayer who’s trying to make ends meet.
In fact, a new report by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities shows that the corporate share of federal tax revenues was just 7.4 percent in 2003. Let's see if Tim Russert and The New York Times go after Dean on this discrepancy. Corporate taxes have fallen by about $75 billion over the last 3 years --almost enough to cover our most recent Iraq bill.
Dean is right on about the long-term trend, however, as the chart below shows.
Contrast this with the payroll tax which used to account for about 10 percent of federal revenue in 1952 but is now about 40 percent. For those of you who don't know, the payroll tax (which is actually regressive) is conveniently omitted as an "income" tax when conservatives talk about who bears the burden of income taxes.
The report points out that while the weak economy has played a role in the recent trend, a substantial amount of this decline is due to tax avoidance strategies and tax law changes enacted since 2000.