New Government Analysis Shows All Americans Would Bear the Cost of a Corporate Tax Increase

A new analysis prepared by the nonpartisan staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation finds that more than 169 million American families earning less than $500,000 would end up paying for the Administration’s proposed increase in corporate taxes. These families would bear two-thirds of the cost of an increase in the corporate tax rate and represent more than 98% of the American households that are made worse off from the increase in corporate taxes.

Even though a corporation physically writes the check to the Internal Revenue Service when it pays its taxes, those costs are passed on to people, just like increases in rent and other costs are passed on.

All economists agree that people bear the cost of taxes.

The bottom line is that the true burden of the corporate income tax is paid by all Americans. That is because higher corporate income taxes result in workers being paid lower wages, savers earning less on their retirement accounts, and people paying higher prices for the goods and services produced by corporations.

Economists universally agree that a substantial share of the corporate income tax is ultimately paid by workers in the form of lower wages.

The Joint Committee on Taxation is a nonpartisan, technical staff that advises Congress on all tax issues.