With the budget debate in full swing and tax deadline just a whisper away, I thought it would be useful to post this, even if it’s a year old — something to keep around every time you hear corporations whine about high taxes. Because those taxes aren’t high at all (yes, I know you know that basic fact).

Remember this basic rap, courtesy of Citizens for Tax Justice:

America has one of the lowest corporate income taxes of any developed country, but you wouldn’t know it given the hysteria of corporate lobbying outfits like the Business Roundtable. They say that because Japan lowered its corporate tax rate by a few percentage points on April 1, the U.S. now has the most burdensome corporate tax in the world.

The problem with this argument is that large, profitable U.S. corporations only pay about half of the 35 percent corporate tax rate on average, and most U.S. multinational corporations actually pay higher taxes in other countries. So the large majority of Americans who tell pollsters that they want U.S. corporations to pay more in taxes are onto something. [emphasis added]