Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

The Graphic Truth: What companies actually pay in taxes

The Graphic Truth: What companies actually pay in taxes
Gabriella Turrisi
Make us preferred on Google

On top of the global debate about enacting a minimum global tax for multinational corporations, there's another growing movement in a host of countries for all firms to pay their fair share in taxes, whether they do business abroad or not. Many US corporations are notorious for getting away with paying little to no federal taxes by taking advantage of multiple loopholes in the tax code — which is true for a lot of them. However, as a whole the average percentage of income US corporations do pay taxes on — their effective tax rate — is in reality not much lower than the legal national rate due to additional taxes levied by some US states and cities — the same as in many other developed economies. We compare the official and the effective corporate tax rates in some nations around the world.

More For You

Washington’s controversial new approach to foreign aid
What do countries receiving US foreign aid owe Washington? Since returning to power in 2025, the Trump administration has drastically changed the answer to this question, pursuing an ‘America First’ philosophy that is dramatically more transactional: the US will give you money, but you must give the US something valuable in return.In the [...]
People wearing protective masks walk through the street as haze from wildfires shrouds the area in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan province, Indonesia, October 14, 2026.

People wearing protective masks walk through the street as haze from wildfires shrouds the area in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan province, Indonesia, October 14, 2026.

REUTERS/Arief Rahman Septian Prathama
Indonesia’s wildfires ignite regional tensionsIndonesia’s worst wildfires in a decade are quickly becoming a domestic and international headache for President Prabowo Subianto. He has so far refused to declare a national emergency, which would free up more resources to fight the blazes. Prabowo says the government has things under control without [...]
Senegal’s LGBTQ+ crackdown
Lottie Tellyn
Senegalese LGBTQ+ people have also faced forced HIV testing and challenges getting legal representation amid a wider crackdown. As a candidate in the 2024 election, now-president Bassirou Diomaye Faye pledged to strengthen existing laws that criminalized same-sex relations. In March the government doubled the maximum prison term for same-sex [...]
Refugees and migrants arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos, November 10, 2015. Since the start of the year, over 590,000 people have crossed into Greece, the frontline of a massive westward population shift from war-ravaged Syria and beyond.

Refugees and migrants arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos, November 10, 2015. Since the start of the year, over 590,000 people have crossed into Greece, the frontline of a massive westward population shift from war-ravaged Syria and beyond.

REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
Anti-immigration political parties are making big gains across Europe these days. Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party just won two major state parliamentary elections, campaigning in part on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Spain’s far-right Vox party continues to grow in popularity, especially after a recent surge of [...]