Top Marginal Corporate Income Tax Rate

This variable includes local taxes, if any, and includes the effect of federal deductibility, if allowed. A state’s largest city is used as a proxy for local tax rates. In the case of gross receipts or business franchise taxes, an effective tax rate is approximated using NIPA profits, rental and proprietor’s income and gross domestic product data. For an explanation of the estimation of Texas’ franchise tax, see note below. The Texas franchise tax is not a traditional gross receipts tax, but is instead a “margin” tax with more than one rate. A margin tax creates less distortion than a gross receipts tax. Therefore, we believe the best measurement for an effective corporate tax rate for Texas is to average the 4.656% measure we would use if the tax was a gross receipts tax and the 0.75% highest rate on its margin tax, leading to our measure of 2.70%. Data were drawn from Tax Analysts, Federation of Tax Administrators, individual state tax return forms and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Tax rates are as of January 1, 2020.