What is the state of corporation taxes in OECD countries?

Against the background of increased globalisation statutory corporate tax rates showed a clear downward trend over the last two decades. The sharp decline in the corporate statutory tax rates was accompanied by a broadening of the corporate tax base which partly offsets the downward trend. However, examining measures of effective tax rate which take into account the base broadening, overall there is a significant reduction of the corporate tax burden. This is widely seen as evidence for tax competition, however, tax revenues from corporate taxation remained fairly stable, which is at odds with the standard tax competition models. This paper therefore puts corporate taxation in the OECD into a wider context and analyses the development of the corporate tax systems as part of the overall tax system. This more holistic view allows to gain some new insights to the state of corporate taxation relative to the two other sources of tax revenues, personal income and consumption. Against the background of personal tax rates falling at a slower pace the relatively stable corporate tax revenues could come at the expense of personal income tax revenues.