Corporate tax revenue has been reduced by both base erosion and rate cuts: State and local corporate income tax revenue as a % of corporate profits, total and expressed as share of profits from only C-corporations, 1989–2020
| Overall | C-corporation only | |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 5.2% | 5.9% |
| 1990 | 4.9% | 5.6% |
| 1991 | 4.7% | 5.4% |
| 1992 | 4.8% | 5.5% |
| 1993 | 4.9% | 5.7% |
| 1994 | 4.8% | 5.7% |
| 1995 | 4.7% | 5.6% |
| 1996 | 4.4% | 5.4% |
| 1997 | 4.2% | 5.1% |
| 1998 | 4.0% | 4.9% |
| 1999 | 4.0% | 4.9% |
| 2000 | 4.0% | 5.0% |
| 2001 | 3.8% | 4.8% |
| 2002 | 3.6% | 4.6% |
| 2003 | 3.4% | 4.4% |
| 2004 | 3.4% | 4.4% |
| 2005 | 3.6% | 4.7% |
| 2006 | 3.8% | 5.0% |
| 2007 | 3.9% | 5.3% |
| 2008 | 3.9% | 5.3% |
| 2009 | 3.8% | 5.2% |
| 2010 | 3.4% | 4.7% |
| 2011 | 3.1% | 4.3% |
| 2012 | 2.9% | 4.0% |
| 2013 | 2.9% | 4.1% |
| 2014 | 2.8% | 4.0% |
| 2015 | 2.8% | 4.0% |
| 2016 | 2.7% | 3.9% |
| 2017 | 2.6% | 3.9% |
| 2018 | 2.6% | 4.0% |
| 2019 | 2.9% | 4.4% |
| 2020 | 3.0% | 4.7% |
Notes: Data from Nelson 2016 and Krakower et al. 2021 show that the share of corporate profits accounted for by C-corporations fell from roughly 95% to 65% between 1980 and 2021, with a corresponding rise in profits accounted for by S-corporations. (S-corporations largely escape state-level corporate taxation, and the growth of S-corporations is at least in part attributable to tax evasion strategies aided by policy.) To estimate profits of C-corporations only for this figure, we use the data from Nelson 2016 and Krakower et al. 2021 and linearly interpolate this declining share smoothly over the entire period.
Sources: National Income and Product Accounts Tables 3.3 and 1.14 from the Bureau of Economic Analysis; Nelson 2016.