[20210929]IF10742_谁支付公司税？.pdf

https:/crsreports.congress.gov Updated September 29, 2021Who Pays the Corporate Tax?Among the issues surrounding tax reform is who bears the burden of the corporate tax. The burden could fall on stockholders, on capital owners in general, or on labor. This question is important for characterizing the distributional effects of the tax. If the tax reduces the returns to capital, it falls largely on higher-income individuals who own relatively more of capital assets and is progressive (i.e., the tax rises as a share of income as income rises). If it reduces wages, it falls on workers and it is less likely to be progressive. A considerable amount of economic research has appeared, especially in the past 10 or 15 years, examining the incidence of the tax. That research is reviewed in detail in CRS Report RL34229, Corporate Tax Reform: Issues for Congress, by Jane G. Gravelle. That review suggests that the evidence supports most or all of the burden falling on capital. Sometimes claims are made that the tax falls on the corporations customers (and by implication on purchases in the economy). Only relative and not absolute prices matter in determining burden and aggregate real prices can