Corporate Taxes, the Myths and Facts

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444799904578050353189826008.html

Not a huge fan of Opinion articles, but this one seems fairly officially supported.  If companies were able to bring the reported 1.7 trillion back home without such hefty taxes, would it have a positive or negative effect on the economy? What's more important right now: government revenue, or economic growth?  Are they mutually exclusive? 

America's corporate tax rate is too high and needs to come down. Who says so? President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney—and America's jobs creators who believe lower rates are a necessity for economic growth. At last week's presidential debate, the two candidates agreed on the need to reduce the U.S. corporate tax rate, now the highest in the world and a full 14 percentage points above the average rate among major advanced economies.

The system has simply not kept up with the demands of today's global marketplace, where 95% of the world's consumers live outside the U.S. All other G-8 countries—and 28 of the 34 member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development—use "territorial" tax systems. This means a company's sales in foreign markets are taxed at the rate of that local market—the same rate borne by other competitors.

The dual components of corporate tax reform—a reduction in the U.S. corporate tax rate and a modernized international tax system like those of our trading partners—are crucial to regaining U.S. economic growth. Only with growth will American workers reap the benefits of the rapidly growing consumer markets around the world. On that, also, Messrs. Obama and Romney should agree.