Corporate Profits Are Up. Their Tax Bill Should Be Too.

Optimist Economy

Kathryn Anne Edwards and Robin Rauzi

Public Policy, Economics, Government, Economy

4.9 • 829 Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The corporate income tax rate got hacked nearly in half by the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act. So nine years later, how’s that working out? Corporations’ effective tax rate (about 9%) is lower than what the average American household pays (about 14.5%). After-tax corporate profits have hit record highs for the last four years — about 9% of GDP, a figure not hit since 1929. Workers' share of total national income, by contrast, is at a 70-year low. If corporate taxes go back up, some companies may threaten to reincorporate somewhere cheaper. Call that bluff. Someone else will deliver the toilet paper and make the coffee.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're used to hearing my voice on the world, bringing you interviews from around the globe.
0:07.2	And you hear me reporting environment and climate news. I'm Carolyn Beeler.
0:12.1	And I'm Marco Werman. We're now with you hosting the world together. More global journalism with a fresh new sound.
0:18.3	Listen to the world on your local public radio station and wherever you find your podcasts.
0:37.2	Hello and welcome to Optimist Economy. I'm Catherine Ann Edwards Economist.
0:39.0	I'm editor Robin Rousey.
0:40.6	And on this show, we talk about...
0:42.4	Wait, no, what do we do?
0:43.8	Hold on.
0:44.3	On this show, we believe the U.S. economy can be better,
0:46.7	and we talk about how to get there
0:48.1	one problem and solution at a time.
0:51.7	I thought I could do it from memory,
0:53.5	and I wasn't reading, and like, look what happened.
0:58.2	The problem slash solution we're talking about today is the corporate income tax rate.
1:03.2	And first we're going to do some announcements and other things, but more corporate income tax rate coming soon.
1:08.6	I can't seem to open the studio chat.
1:11.3	Oh, well. Oh, well.
1:16.6	Oh, well. If you guys wanted to studio chat anything, sorry, can't read it. Announcements.
1:23.9	First announcement is that we have recorded our Q&A episode, but we always take questions from the optimist. So, of course, optimist.com.
1:29.9	We'll do another Q&A episode soon enough,
1:32.0	and we'll always take questions.
	...

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