American Corporate Tax Exceptionalism

Sponsored by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center (TPC) and the International Tax Policy Forum (ITPF).

Friday, February 20, 2009, 9:00 am – 1:30 pm
The Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC

To RSVP, please call the Brookings Office of Communications at 202.797.6105. To register on-line click here

The live audio webcast is available here.

The combined federal and state U.S. statutory corporate tax rate has remained stable for many years as other countries’ rates have fallen and is now above the rates in most advanced economies, although tax preferences may offset in part the effects of differences in statutory rates. At the same time, the United States is the only OECD country that does not have a national value-added type tax, and some tax policy experts believe the U.S. should follow the lead of some of our major trading partners and exempt active foreign source income from tax.

This half-day conference will assess the extent to which the U.S. tax system differs from international norms and whether these differences affect U.S. economic performance.

9:00am Welcome and Introduction

• William Gale, TPC Co-Director, Vice President and Director, Economic Studies, Brookings Institution
• John Samuels, Vice President & Senior Counsel – Taxes, General Electric

9:10am Panel 1: Taxation of Foreign Income by the U.S. and Other Governments

• Michael Graetz (moderator), Yale Law School
• James Hines, University of Michigan

9:50am Panel 2: Corporate Tax Burdens at Home and Around the World

• Kevin Hassett (moderator), American Enterprise Institute
• Douglas Shackelford, University of North Carolina
• Martin Sullivan, Tax Analysts

11:00am Panel 3: Is U.S. Corporate Investment Abroad Bad for the U.S. Economy?

• Matthew Slaughter (moderator), Dartmouth College, Tuck School of Business
• Alan Auerbach, University of California at Berkeley
• Mihir Desai, Harvard Business School

11:45am Panel 4: Does It Matter If the United States Deviates from International Tax Norms?

• James Hines (moderator), University of Michigan
• Rosanne Altshuler, TPC Co-director, Urban Institute
• Michael Graetz, Yale Law School
• Reuven Avi-Yonah, University of Michigan

1:00pm Luncheon Address

• Ed Kleinbard, Chief of Staff, Joint Committee on Taxation